How would COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers adapt to changes?
Tweaking their vaccines is a process that should be easier than coming up with the original pictures.
Viruses always circulate as they spread, and most modifications do not matter. First-generation COVID-19 vaccines appear to be working against changes today, but manufacturers are already taking steps to update their prescriptions if health authorities decide it is needed.
COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are made with new technology that is easy to update. The so-called mRNA vaccines use a piece of genetic code for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, so your immune system can learn to recognize and fight the real thing.
If a variable with a mutated spike protein changes that the original vaccine does not recognize, companies would figure out that genetic code piece for better matches – if and when regulators decide it is necessary.
Updating other COVID-19 vaccines could be more complicated. The AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, uses a harmless version of a cold virus to carry that spike protein gene into the body. Renewal of cold viruses had to grow with the updated spike gene.
The Food and Drug Administration said reviews of updated COVID-19 vaccines do not have to be as large or as long as the first generation of images. Instead, a few hundred volunteers could receive trial doses of a revaccinated vaccine and have their blood checked for signs of reviving the immune system in addition to the original vaccines.
It is more difficult to determine if the virus has moved enough to alter scenes.
Globally, health authorities monitor mutations of coronavirus to detect mutations that are resistant to vaccines. They also need to decide whether a reformulated vaccine should protect against more than one variant.
Overall the process would be similar to what is already happening with the flu vaccine. Flu viruses move much faster than coronaviruses, so scenes of flu change each year and require protection against several strains.