Page 6 - Beta Variant News Today

30 to 40-fold rise in your virus neutralizing antibodies. and we know from other partial vaccine resistant variants like the beta variant that was first identified in south africa last year and the lambda variant, when you have high virus neutralizing antibodies, you have spillover or cross protection against the variant of concern. i am hoping that for those people who have had that third immunization, that that will be the case, they wont get infected or sick from the omicron variant. what may...

0 the president was asked about this earlier this week and he said that had not been recommended to him. youre his chief medical adviser. do you think thats something the country should adopt? >> im not so sure we should say that should be a requirement. we have 60 million people in this country who are not vaccinated, who are eligible to be vaccinated. lets get them vaccinated, lets get the people who are vaccinated boosted, lets get the children vaccinated. thats where we want to go as opposed...

Already to less severe disease. >> so, what do we know about the medical community? i mean, about what they expect during this critical two-week period as the world is waiting to see how the various vaccines respond? >> well, this is the critical period. and earlier-this year, we were in a lab where they were trying to do just the same thing with the beta variant. challenging live virus in the lab to get a sense if it escapes previous immunity. and crucially, the vaccines. now, a bit of good new...

Saying they are seeing less severe cases. but the early cluster outbreak of this surge was from a university. you know, so that lends itself already to less severe disease. >> so, what do we know about the medical community? i mean, about what they expect during this critical two-week period as the world is waiting to see how the various vaccines respond? >> well, this is the critical period. and earlier-this year, we were in a lab where they were trying to do just the same thing with the beta v...

You would know whether or not the current vaccines are effective against this variant? >> well, were going get think think in the next week and a half, to the next two weeks so our vaccine group, the way you do that is you take either experimental animals or individuals who have been vaccinated with your vaccine and you measure virus neutralizing antibodies against the original lineage because thats how the vaccines were made and you compare it to the neutralizing agents against the omicron vari...

What about omicron gives you that confidence? what part of it? because theres all these mutations which is obviously freaking out -- this is a more mutated virus than i guess was expected this early, correct? >> well, what weve seen is when you get really very, very high levels of virus neutralizing antibody, when we looked at it against the beta variant that came out of south africa last year, or the lambda which had some of the same mutations as omicron, yes, you got a decrease in virus neutra...

Pandemic. that gave them the experience to know how to look at viruses, now how to break down the genetic sequencing. one of the pioneers in this field is dr. richard lessles. he helped discover the beta variant almost a year ago. i was on the phone with him yesterday back doing these zoom interviews and we were talking about this new variant. they have mostly anecdotal evidence about the symptoms. some of the symptoms appear to be a little different. some doctors and nurses are describing theyr...

If you do it too early,... when youre confronted with a new variant that might be more able to escape vaccine protection, the goal posts do move a bit in terms of the timing and age groups and so on and that is what the announcements coming up will try to address, i think. what will try to address, i think. what is the scene _ will try to address, i think. what is the scope for _ will try to address, i think. what is the scope for adjusting - will try to address, i think. what is the scope for a...

What theyre seeing there. >> based on the current evidence in south africa, its transmitting faster than the delta variant and the overlap with the beta variant some evidence of immune escape from antibodies. the clinical is just basic with covid, nothing different. the second is that what they are seeing are largely younger people, but thats to be expected, because we have much higher vaccine coverage in the older people. we have a much lower vaccine coverage in younger people, so thats just to...

These two together until we know whats going on are going to be critical in our line of defense. >> if it turns out this particular variant doesnt work with the current vaccine, how much will it take to come up with a booster to protect against a variant like this? >> at moderna, weve been testing various and significant boosters since over the summer, one to the beta variant, one to the delta. our platform we can move very fast, we think weeks to within two to three months, we would be able to ...