Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines against UK coronavirus variant

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Tue, 2020-12-22 10:13 — mike kraft

Pfizer and Moderna are testing their vaccines against UK coronavirus variant Pfizer and Moderna are testing their coronavirus vaccines to see if they work against the mutated version of the virus found in the United Kingdom and other countries, the companies said. Eric Levenson and Elizabeth Cohen, CNN CNN

(CNN) Pfizer and Moderna are testing their coronavirus vaccines to see if they work against the mutated version of the virus found in the United Kingdom and other countries, the companies said.

The variant has not been identified in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a Tuesday brief, but "given the small fraction of US infections that have been sequenced, the variant could already be in the United States without having been detected."

Travel between the US and UK, along with the high prevalence of variant in UK infections, increases "the likelihood of importation," the CDC said.

"We expect that the Moderna vaccine-induced immunity would be protective against the variants recently described in the UK; we will be performing additional tests in the coming weeks," Moderna said.

Pfizer is "generating data," it said, on how well blood samples from immunized people "may be able to neutralize the new strain."

The novel coronavirus has mutated before, and both companies' vaccines worked against other variations of the virus.

The importance of this mutation is uncertain, experts say, yet dozens of countries, including Canada, have imposed restrictions on UK travelers. The United States has not, but the White House is considering requiring travelers from the UK to present a negative coronavirus test before entering the US, two administration officials told CNN.

The UK variant "doesn't change what we need to do" to stay protected, US Surgeon General Jerome Adams said. "We need to wear masks, wash hands, watch our distances and wait on gatherings, and we need to get vaccines, get vaccinated when those become available," he said. ...

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