US regulators have granted an emergency use authorization for the new COVID-19 vaccine developed by Novavax. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious disease expert and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, says the new vaccine sets it apart from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna shots and fights future variants. I will explain how to do it.
Video transcript
[MUSIC PLAYING]
— The first trial showed 90% efficacy and the trial had many alphas. Therefore, it is exactly 90.4% effective. And it provides up to 99% and even higher protection against severe illness.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Although there are no Omicron-specific data for Novavax, it is expected to work as well as an mRNA vaccine, at least to protect against serious illness, as the same portion of the virus, which is a pedplomer, is actually involved. Then there was another study in Jama that wasn’t a trial, but during the Indian delta wave, they saw how Nuvaxovid works because India has a lot of vaccines. So they investigated how Nuvavax worked during the delta wave, but still protected those exposed to the delta, a healthcare professional. It was also very high, almost 90%. So it’s not a trial version, but it’s understandable that it works well for Delta.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Novavax differs from mRNA vaccines in that it uses this ancient and true technique of delivering real peplomer and so-called “helpers”, adjuvants. Then take it into your body, and then you boost the immune response to the peplomer itself, which is the whole peaplomer. On the other hand, mRNA technology was created because the host showed the genetic material for encoding the peplomer. Therefore, performing another step enhances the immune response. So this is the actual protein. And this is very traditional and contains no live viruses.
None of these vaccines for COVID, which are even dreamed of, have a live virus in them. Some people don’t want to get an mRNA or DNA vaccine for a variety of reasons, but this only provides us with this additional vaccine. In other parts of the world, there are far wider range of vaccines than they really are. And we want this for those who are hesitant about vaccines that have been waiting for non-mRNA vaccines.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
One thing we’ve seen is that mixing vaccines seems to work better than using the same vaccine as a booster. And that’s because even though they all contain peplomer, they are a kind of different fold and may only get the broader antigenic response it is called. Therefore, it may be a great booster for anyone who has an mRNA vaccine and booster.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
The more tools we have to counter COVID-19, the more we need to get out of the emergency phase and live with COVID, so I think we can continue to make progress the way we need it. It never goes away. Therefore, the more technology we have for more tools, the better.
[MUSIC PLAYING]