“Moncef Slaoui, the former head of the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed, says he’s “cautiously optimistic” about how well existing vaccines will hold up against omicron, the latest coronavirus variant of concern.
“Omicron has more mutations than previous variants, with around 30 mutations on just its spike protein.
“That’s worrying for virologists, who note that the spike protein is what vaccines use to “teach” our bodies to recognize the coronavirus.
“But Slaoui, who spent decades developing vaccines in the pharmaceutical industry before leading Operation Warp Speed’s scientific work, says even if antibodies prompted by vaccines are less effective against omicron, other parts of the immune response could still help.”
Read more at NPR
