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Following Pfizer full approval, you could see tweaks to future vaccines

While scientists watch how the body responds to differing variants, manufacturers can tweak vaccines in a similar process as flu shots.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — You've heard about how the Delta variant is more contagious - fueling the recent surge in COVID cases. 

Let's compare it to the flu virus. Someone suffering from the flu will infect 1 to 2 other people. The original strain of COVID-19 which is called Alpha, about 3 other people could contract it. 

Delta though can spread to 8 or 9 other people. This is where vaccines matter because that's one of the ways to stop the spread. 

Just like the flu shot, the COVID-19 vaccine can be tweaked in the future to provide the right protection against emerging variants. In most cases, Pfizer can do that without having to get full FDA approval again. USF Health's Dr. Jill Roberts says the coronavirus isn't going anywhere. As we get new COVID-19 variants, those shots can be adjusted just like flu shots were adjusted for swine flu more than a decade ago.

“They don't have to go through an FDA approval every single year, but they did the first time around to get it on the books, and then have the CDC decide what the process would be offering the flu shot every year,” Dr. Roberts said.

Credit: Leigh Prather - stock.adobe.com
Healthcare providers are able to give a modified version of the influenza vaccine each year to prepare for the upcoming flu season.

When the swine flu pandemic also known as H1N1 hit the U.S. early in 2009, it spread quickly. But that flu variant was quickly added to flu shots so that people would be protected.

“It was really easy to actually add that influenza strain to the existing flu shots that are available which is why we were able to vaccinate people for swine flu really fast,” Dr. Roberts said.

The flu shot covers multiple strains of flu virus - covering four for older adults and two or three for younger people. Manufacturers modify the proteins for the strains they expect for flu season. Similarly, Dr. Roberts says the Pfizer vaccines, which use MRNA technology to trigger an immune response in your body, are also something that can be tweaked.

“As long as that formulation doesn't change much it's okay. What we're talking about is the MRNA technology is showing a spike protein. if they change the spike protein around a little bit, it doesn't require FDA approval for change if they were change all the vaccine around, say okay we're going to put a totally different protein in here, you'd have to go through approval all over again,” Dr. Roberts said.

Other countries like the United Kingdom are doing quite a bit of surveillance for different variants and putting the information they have into an international database. That helps vaccine manufacturers with developing the right tweaks for vaccines in the future.

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