Tag: South African COVID-19 variant now in USA

Moderna says new version of vaccine is tailored to quell infection by South Africa variant

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Moderna said Wednesday that it has manufactured a new version of its coronavirus vaccine that is tailored to quell infection by the variant first identified in South Africa. A small amount of vaccine has been sent to the National Institutes of Health for a trial to determine whether boosting humans with the modified vaccine will stimulate a strong immune response, the company said.

The news came after the release of a Food and Drug Administration review finding the single-shot coronavirus vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson safe and effective. The review sets the stage for a third coronavirus vaccine to be authorized in the United States as soon as this weekend. View the post.

Coronavirus variant first seen in South Africa identified in South Carolina

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A highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa has infected two people in South Carolina with no travel history, state officials announced Thursday. These are the first cases in the United States involving the B. 1.351 variant, and the patients’ lack of travel or a connection to one another suggests that the variant is spreading in the community following an undetected introduction.

The state Department of Health and Environmental Control did not release the names of the people infected, stating only that they are adults, “one from the Lowcountry and one from the Pee Dee region.”

The B. 1.351 variant, first identified in South Africa in December and containing mutations that appear to enhance transmission, is considered by scientists to be even more worrisome than the more widely publicized B.1.1.7 variant first seen in the United Kingdom. The latter has been detected in more than two dozen U.S. states. View the post here, provided free to view by The Washington Post..