AstraZeneca believes it can produce a modified vaccine fully effective against variant-covid by the autumn.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55917793
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Prof Andy Pollard, from Oxford University, said they were already planning to tweak the vaccine.
He said it was a relatively quick process - and would only need small trials to be done before roll-out.
There is still strong evidence existing vaccines work well against the mutations that have emerged.
Although their overall effectiveness may be weakened a little.
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---------- Post added at 14:15 ---------- Previous post was at 13:58 ----------
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Originally Posted by Hugh
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You have quoted extremely selectively from that article, which makes a rather better attempt at handling the balance between optimism and caution, and leads on the pre-press paper’s findings (it’s wise to remember that even prior to peer review, a paper from a respected source that finds its way onto one of these major pre-press servers is highly likely to be good research with sound conclusions).
The summary analysis at the foot of the Times article says thus:
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Although the numbers come with error bars — the statistical hedging of bets — and from a trial that was not explicitly designed to assess the effects of spacing the doses, the most important information is that the single dose works. People’s immune protection gets stronger and stays strong over the first 12 weeks. People who have had the jab can be confident that they will not lose immunity over the winter.
Another important finding is that the vaccine makes a big dent in transmission. With one and two doses alike, symptomatic cases are cut by a lot and, rather than rising, asymptomatic cases are perhaps cut by a little.
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