Pharmaceuticals Pfizer and Moderna are testing whether their corona vaccines are also effective against the new variant of the virus, which has surfaced in the United Kingdom, among others.
The new virus variant is said to be extra contagious, and that is causing primary international concern. Many countries, including the Netherlands, have halted air traffic from the United Kingdom to prevent the spread of the mutated version of the virus.
Moderna also expects its vaccine to protect against the new variant that has surfaced in the UK. “We will be conducting additional testing in the coming weeks to see if we can confirm that,” CNN said in a statement from the pharmaceutical company.
Pfizer uses blood samples from people who have already been vaccinated to test how effective the vaccine is against the new variant.
On Monday, the EU gave the green light for the use of the Pfizer vaccine. Many European countries want to start vaccinating citizens before the end of the year. In the United States, in addition to the Pfizer vaccine, Moderna has already been approved by the regulator.
