In-Depth: The four leading COVID booster shot strategies
Amid the threat of variants, vaccine makers are testing a range of strategies to boost immunity, from targeted recipes to the cocktail approach found in the flu vaccine.
and last updated 2021-04-08 20:44:24-04
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) Amid the threat of variants, vaccine makers are testing a range of strategies to boost immunity, from targeted recipes to the cocktail approach found in the flu vaccine.
All of the vaccines authorized in the U.S. are effective against severe COVID-19, but research suggests they are somewhat less effective against certain variants particularly the variant first discovered in South Africa.
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Why we need booster shots against variants to help end the pandemic
As variants spread, scientists are fighting back. The good news is COVID-19 may have a limited number of dangerous mutations.
ByLinda Marsa
Email
Just as the coronavirus continues to mutate and evolve, so must the weapons used to fight it. To that end the National Institutes of Health began testing booster shots designed to target a new variant of the COVID-19 virus. First seen in South Africa, the strain known as B.1.351 is especially worrisome because it appears to spread, like some other variants, more easily than the original. Recent research also indicates it can evade the immune protections generated by vaccines or natural COVID-19 infections.
There s concern coronavirus variants can partially evade vaccines made to target the original virus.
But research suggests the parts of our immune system activated by vaccines can still fight variants.
Experts say to think of vaccines like an elite athlete: They can dominate even when off their A game.
For a while, Dr. Jeremy Faust struggled to put into words why he was not worried about COVID-19 variants rendering vaccines obsolete.
Faust, an emergency-medicine physician and instructor at Harvard Medical School, was loath to use data to explain his reasoning to nonscientists. Instead, he had a hunch that sports analogies might help people understand him a little better.
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