Six months. After the Moderna mRNA vaccine the antibodies remain for (at least) six months. These are the antibody persistence data just communicated by the American company on the New England Journal of Medicine. The study analyzed 33 healthy adults who participated in the US National Institutes of Health-led phase 1 study of Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine while other studies are obviously continuing to monitor to see if there should be an immune response beyond 6 months. and figure out whether to make a booster to extend shelf life and efficacy against emerging viral variants. The data are published in the Letter to Editor of the New England Journal of Medicine.
“We are pleased that these new data show the persistence of antibodies for 6 months after the second dose of our Covid-19 vaccine,” he said. Stephane Bancel, CEO of Moderna. “This gives us further confidence in the protection offered by our Covid-19 vaccine. We remain committed to continuing to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic.”
Moderna is already working to develop vaccines that also work on variants. However, it seems linked to more cases of side effects. At least this is what emerged from two new studies and a report on adverse reactions. The first study, conducted by Duke University researchers, found that the antibodies generated by Moderna’s vaccine have about twice as much neutralizing power against the strain first discovered in California. Despite these, scholars say their vaccine is still very effective.
This study follows what Pfizer-BioNTech reported last week about their vaccine, which works in a similar way to Moderna’s. However, despite the data on the effectiveness of Moderna, more side effects have been reported than those related to Pfizer-BioNTech. In a new study, published in JAMA, US CDC researchers looked at data collected via V-SAFE, which uses text messaging and web surveys so vaccination recipients can note if they are experiencing side effects. After the first dose, people who received Moderna were more likely to report side effects. For example, 73.9 percent reported an injection site reaction, such as pain or redness, compared with 65.4 percent of people who received Pfizer. Additionally, 51.7 percent of those who received Moderna reported reactions such as headache, fever, or chills compared with 48 percent of Pfizer recipients. The disparity between the two vaccines increased after the second dose. 81.9 percent of those who received Moderna reported an injection site reaction and 74.8 percent reported other side effects. While 68.6 percent of those who received the Pfizer vaccine reported injection site reactions and 64.2 had other symptoms. It is not clear why more people do Moderna and report side effects. The National Institutes of Health are now launching an investigation into why some people have reported allergic reactions from Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
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