Moderna booster on the way?

“Preliminary Analysis of Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 Variant Vaccine Booster,” medRxiv preprint

Authors: Kai Wu1*, Angela Choi1*, Matthew Koch1*, LingZhi Ma1 , Anna Hill1 , Naveen Nunna1 , Wenmei Huang1 , Judy Oestreicher1 , Tonya Colpitts1 , Hamilton Bennett1 , Holly Legault1 , Yamuna Paila1 , Biliana Nestorova1 , Baoyu Ding 1 , Rolando Pajon1 , Jacqueline M Miller1 , Brett Leav1 , Andrea Carfi1 , Roderick McPhee1#, Darin K Edwards1#

Affiliations: 1Moderna Inc., Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

Prof. Joel Eissenberg, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine. Joel participated in the early trials of the Moderna mRNA vaccines for Covid-19. He was inoculated with the true vaccine as determined by testing for anti-bodies.

Joel: I’m still awaiting approval of the Moderna booster. But this preprint suggests that approval may be forthcoming soon. From the abstract:

“Antibody neutralization titers against B.1.351 and P.1 variants measured by SARS-CoV-2 pseudovirus neutralization (PsVN) assays before the booster vaccinations, approximately 6 to 8 months after the primary series, were low or below the assay limit of quantification,

although geometric mean titers versus the wild-type strain remained above levels likely to be protective. Two weeks after the booster vaccinations, titers against the wild-type original strain, B.1.351, and P.1 variants increased to levels similar to or higher than peak titers after the primary series vaccinations.”

From the Discussion: “Prior to the booster, neutralization titers of 198 and 304 in the Part B and Part C cohorts remained significant, at levels predicted to be protective against the original Wuhan-Hu-1 isolate . . . all trial participants, including those that had undetectable titers against the variant viruses, had robust neutralization titers in both the wild-type and variant assays two weeks after the booster.”

Preliminary Analysis of Safety and Immunogenicity of a SARS-CoV-2 Variant Vaccine Booster (medrxiv.org)