Washington, Nov 29 (Agency) The development and production of a new vaccine against the Omicron coronavirus variant will take months, Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC. “The higher dose could be done right away but it will be months before the Omicron specific variant is ready to ship in massive quantities,” Bancel said. On Friday, the World Health Organization labeled Omicron, recently identified in South Africa, as a variant of concern, since it may be more transmissible and dangerous. Cases of the new variant have already been confirmed in multiple countries, and governments rushed to suspend travel with southern African nations in order to prevent the spread of the new strain.
Bancel noticed that it will take at least two weeks to determine the efficacy of current vaccines against the new highly infectious variant of the novel coronavirus. “Depending on how much it dropped, we might decide on the one hand to give a higher dose of the current vaccine around the world to protect people, maybe people at very high risk, the immunocompromised, and the elderly should need a fourth dose,” he said. The Moderna CEO expressed concern that Omicron is already present in most countries of the world. When asked about possible travel bans, he noted that restrictive measures can prevent the spreading of the virus. “I think those actions can save a lot of lives down the road,” he said. Many countries have imposed additional measures, including quarantine for those arriving from regions where Omicron is spreading.