Covid-19 Live Updates: Moderna Says Its Vaccine Is Highly Effective in Adolescents
The drugmaker announced that its Covid-19 vaccine was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds. It plans to apply for F.D.A. authorization.
Here’s what you need to know:
A teenager taking part in a Moderna vaccine trial in Houston in February.Credit.Brandon Thibodeaux for The New York Times
Moderna said on Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine, authorized only for use in adults, was powerfully effective in 12- to 17-year-olds, and that it planned to apply to the Food and Drug Administration in June for authorization to use the vaccine in adolescents.
The coronavirus variant first seen in India is rapidly outpacing all others in Britain, a problem for the U.K. and a potential new burden on poorer nations.
According to the new data, vaccines work well against variants found in India
According to new data from the UK, two doses of BioNTech / Pfizer or Oxford / AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines provide good protection against symptomatic infections according to new data from the UK, due to the minimal reduction in efficacy compared to the variant called Kent.
BioNTech / Pfizer jab offered 88 per cent protection against the B. 1,617.2 variant found in India, almost unnoticed from the 93 per cent given against the B.1.1.7 strain first identified in south-east England. According to Public Health England data.
Two doses of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine provided lower protection against both variants, 66 percent for B.1.1.7 percent and 60 percent for B. 1,617.2.
Dominant Kent Covid variant is 'NOT more deadly but does spread faster' the-sun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from the-sun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
How this more contagious virus variant became dominant in the U.S.
The B.1.1.7 strain is spreading among adults and kids, and experts say that s another reason to get vaccinated, fast.
BySanjay Mishra
Email
The coronavirus variant known as B.1.1.7, which studies show is both more deadly and more transmissible than the original version of SARS-CoV-2, is now the most common strain circulating in United States, and its growing prevalence has alarmed prominent epidemiologists.
Earlier in the pandemic, not many children were becoming infected with the coronavirus, and they did not appear to be major sources of virus transmission to other age groups. “That changed with B.1.1.7,” says epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. “We re now seeing substantial numbers of outbreaks in schools and in school-related activities.”