Moderna’s updated COVID-19 vaccine booster performs worse against a virus variant that is becoming increasingly prevalent in the United States, the company announced on Nov. 14.
A clinical trial testing the updated booster, which U.S. regulators authorized in August without any clinical data, showed that it provides a higher level of neutralizing antibody titers than the old booster against the variant BA.5, according to Moderna.
BA.5 is currently the dominant strain in America, and antibody titers are believed to protect against COVID-19 infection and severe disease.
The results were based on 511 people, who received the new booster either 9 or 4 months after receiving an old booster….