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Francois Lo Presti / AFP via Getty Images
Pfizer and Moderna were the first to launch approved vaccines for Covid-19, but three other pharmaceutical companies are following closely and may help to get the United States and other countries to gain immunity more quickly.
Novavax is launching a trial of 30,000 people in the United States and Mexico for its vaccine, which could pass in the spring of 2021.
Novavax
The vaccine uses proteins to trigger an immune response after being injected, as well as a substance derived from Chilean evergreen trees to increase that response.
The developing vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson use viral vector technology, in which a modified virus triggers an immune response.
AstraZenecain
The drug is due to be approved in the UK this week, and the company said its vaccine “must remain effective” against the variant discovered there for the first time.
More than two million Americans have been vaccinated so far with the
Pfizer
and the drugs Moderna, both using synthetic messenger RNA to trigger the body to produce protective antibodies against the virus.
Having multiple vaccines increases the overall supply and offers options that may be more effective in different cross sections of the population. President-elect Joe Biden plans to help supply the juice by also invoking the Defense Production Act as soon as he takes office in January, according to a member of his Covid-19 advisory board.
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