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COVID-19 Vaccine Makers Consider Adapting Vaccines, Booster Shots Against Resistant Variants

05:46

February 24, 2021

A health worker gets a second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 at Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco) — A health worker gets a second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 at Santo Tomas Hospital in Panama City. (Arnulfo Franco/AP)

A study last week published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines may be less effective at neutralizing the South African variant of the coronavirus. Vaccine makers are now racing to develop booster shots that address these more resistant variants.

Host Peter O'Dowd speaks with Dr. Drew Weissman, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and pioneer of the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

This segment aired on February 24, 2021.

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