The Moderna Vaccine’s Antibodies May Not Last As Long As We Hoped
(Posted on Tuesday, December 22, 2020)
With the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines finally underway across the United States, data on the vaccines’ effectiveness is starting to become more available. But one key piece of information is still relatively unknown: how long the vaccines’ effectiveness will last. While only a preliminary analysis, a new study by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) suggests that the long-term efficacy of Moderna’s mRNA-1273 vaccine, specifically the neutralizing antibody count, may be less than we were hoping for.
Neutralizing antibodies bind to invading pathogens, like all antibodies do, but they bind in a manner that stops infection. That is why pharmaceutical companies stress neutralizing antibody counts as an essential measure for their vaccines’ success.