Pfizer begins testing Omicron-specific coronavirus shots

Name: WHO says new vaccine to combat Omicron likely needed amid fears variant could infect half of Europe
Uploaded: 2022-01-25T18:07:32.000Z
Duration: 2 min 46 s
Description: WHO says new vaccine to combat Omicron likely needed amid fears variant could infect half of Europe

Vaccine makers have been updating their jabs to better match the highly infectious variant in case global health authorities decide the change is needed

The new US study will include up to 1,420 adult volunteers to help compare how the effective the updated shots are compared to the original

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A pharmacist prepares a dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine in Lawrence, Massachusetts, in December. Photo: AP

Associated Press

Published: 2:07am, 26 Jan 2022Updated: 3:05am, 26 Jan 2022

Pfizer is enrolling healthy adults to test a reformulated Covid-19 vaccine that matches the hugely contagious Omicron variant, to see how it compares with the original shots.

The company and its partner BioNTech announced the study on Tuesday.

Covid-19 vaccine makers have been updating their shots to better match Omicron in case global health authorities decide the change is needed.

Omicron is more likely than previous variants to cause infection even in people who have been vaccinated, but it is not yet clear that a change to the vaccine recipe will be ordered.

02:46

WHO says new vaccine to combat Omicron likely needed amid fears variant could infect half of Europe

Among the issues regulators are weighing: some of the first places to face an Omicron surge already are seeing the mutant wane – and there is no way to know if the next variant that arises will resemble Omicron or be totally different.

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