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Will Pfizer and Moderna vaccines protect us from new virus variants?
None of us know yet but vaccine makers are racing to create new shots.
This may shift into a long battle with a changing virus.
Vaccine makers initially said they believed their shots would protect against the British, South African and Brazilian variants.
Yet studies indicate the vaccines aren’t as effective against the South African strain.
Moderna and Pfizer, the 2 vaccines given in Lexington County, appear to give some protection against emerging strains.
They, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax.are developing new vaccines but this is expensive.
GlaxoSmithKline and CureVac NV are investing $181 million in new variant vaccines.
Early last year, researchers thought covid wouldn’t change significantly and their vaccines would be strong enough to end the pandemic.
Yet they had not been tested in humans exposed to the new strains.