The US could spend between $5 billion to $12 billion on distributing updated vaccines.
"We announced a couple weeks ago a new, variant-specific booster that we’ve been testing, and we have an additional candidate, our lead candidate, in testing now that I believe is going to be even more superior," Moderna Chief Medical Officer Paul Burton said during an appearance on ""We are confident that by the fall of this year, we should have large amounts of that new booster vaccine that will protect against omicron and other variants, and really protect Americans and...
Moderna’s timeline could allow them to meet that deadline, should testing run smoothly and not uncover any issues in the current formulation. Modern also recently filed with the FDA applications for the youngest children, aged 6 or younger. "The data in the study has been completed, and typically what we then do is package the data electronically for the FDA so they can conduct their own reviews, their own analyses," Burton said. "That will go in by May 9, but they have the data they need now to begin."
The vaccine is 37% effective in children aged 2 to 5 and 51% effective on children under 2 years old. The lower effectiveness, Burton argued, is due to the strong virulence of the omicron variant.