Variant Omicron: the CEO of Moderna considers it premature to comment on the effectiveness of the 3rd dose – LCI

“The sample is too small”. Invited to react this Wednesday on LCI on the preliminary data made public Tuesday by Israel tending to prove that after three doses, the Pfizer vaccine remains very effective (90%) against the new variant Omicron, the CEO of Moderna, Stéphane Bancel does not did not hide his reservations. At the question “Is this announcement rushed?”, the latter replied that it was indeed “(his opinion”.

And to insist: “we must be careful in science to draw general conclusions about millions of people with such a small sample.”

Data on the efficacy of vaccines against the Omicron variant are eagerly awaited, in order to know whether the latter escapes the protection conferred by the original vaccines, or whether this is attenuated by the mutations it presents. “It is believed that the antibody level has dropped, which is not a surprise, it was already the case for the Delta variant”, for his part reaffirmed, more pessimistic, Stéphane Bancel. “It is impossible to make conjunctions today, we have to analyze all the blood samples and in two weeks we will be much smarter”He insisted, however, conceding that it is very likely that the initial vaccine will at least partially protect against this new variant, even if it protects less than against the Delta variant.

“What worries me is someone at higher risk, older, who would have had a third dose; if the vaccines lose five to ten times the effectiveness in terms of antibodies because of this new variant, we back to square one “, he detailed, stressing that “the first thing to do is the reminder to raise everyone’s antibody level.”

Regarding the timeframe for the development of a new version of the vaccine that is more effective against the Omicron variant, the CEO of Moderna indicated that“There will probably be an intermediate response of one, two, three months with a vaccine that has the Beta and Delta mutations which are also part of Omicron because we have been working on this vaccine for several months.” In the event that the situation requires “a total change due to the Omicron”, the leader rather projects “within four, five months if the regulatory agencies request other clinical studies”. And to specify: “I think it will depend on the severity of the infections and the illnesses.”

However, the characteristics of this new variant seem to have aroused surprise, including in the scientific world. “It is the number of mutations that surprised us at the scientific level, we thought that such a variant would arrive within 12 to 24 months”, Stéphane Bancel explained again. And to insist: “That we go from the Delta variant with a few mutations to a variant with 32 mutations, it surprised all of our scientists last week.”