BOSTON – New research suggests that the protection that the Modern vaccine gives against COVID-19 lasts at least six months.
The report published Tuesday in the New England Journal of Medicine echoes what Pfizer said last week about its vaccine, which works in a similar way.
Both reports were based on follow-up tests on dozens of people who received the vaccines during the studies that led to the use of the vaccines. These studies were done before new problematic variants, or versions of the coronavirus, emerged and began to spread.
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A separate report in the medical journal raises concerns about the variants. The scientists measured antibodies that can block the virus in 50 people who received the Sinopharm or Sinovac vaccines, developed in China. Many showed total or partial loss of effectiveness against a variant of the virus first detected in South Africa.
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The vaccines still seemed to protect against a variant first found in the UK that is now spreading rapidly in the United States and elsewhere.
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Pfizer and Moderna said they are working to update their vaccines, or possibly develop a booster injection, if they are needed against variants.