COVID-19 update | Moderna CEO advocates third vaccine dose to protect people at risk

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel (Pic Credits: CNBC)

Amid global concerns over the possibility of variant viruses breaking through the vaccine's protection, US-based pharmaceutical major Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel on May 23 said vaccination with a booster shot is a good way to protect those at risk against ever-emerging new COVID-19 variants.

"We believe that our vaccine will be effective for a comparable period, except that the arrival of variants increases the threat level. This is why we must anticipate and vaccinate all people at risk with a third dose by the end of the summer, in particular the residents of nursing homes who received their first dose at the beginning of the year," Bancel told French newspaper Journal Du Dimanche, reported news agency ANI.

The CEO of the US drugmaker further suggested that in order to protect the "fragile unvaccinated people," all adults and adolescents must also receive a booster jab.

In March this year, the National Institutes of Health began testing a variety of offerings from Moderna to use as a third shot designed to boost immunity protection as concern grows about emerging variants — including the one first discovered in South Africa, also known as the B.1.351 variant, reported CNBC.

Bancel warned that three or even two months of delay in vaccinations could lead to an increase in the number of hospitalisations and deaths, which could, in turn, lead to a fourth COVID-19 wave in France.

Moderna is now testing three different booster strategies, he said. The first is against the original Wuhan strain, the second is against the South Africa strain and the third is a combination of both. The effectiveness of these three boosters is later on measured on the four variants deemed to be the most dangerous by the World Health Organization.

The company is planning to launch a study on people near early June and aims to get approval from regulatory agencies by September.

Starting May 28, the Moderna vaccine will be joining AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson in French pharmacies and general practitioners' offices. Around 300,000 doses of the vaccine will be available in pharmacies weekly. The arrival of Moderna in French pharmacies is expected to make the vaccine more accessible to isolated elderly people or overlooked workers and will help with speedier vaccination progress in the country as the vaccine itself can be stored in the refrigerator for up to one month.

Studies have shown that the Moderna vaccine is more than 90 percent effective six months after the second dose, but it is unclear how long it provides protection.

So far, about 90 million people have been inoculated with Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine globally. Around 14 percent of France's total population has been fully vaccinated and 31.5 million people have received at least one dose.
With inputs from ANI