Moderna CEO: existing vaccines likely less effective against omicron

The head of the Moderna drug company said in an interview published Tuesday that the existing COVID-19 vaccines likely will be less effective against the omicron variant than they are against other variations of the virus. Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times that the current vaccines will have to be modified, a process that he says could take months. He warned that no one knows how much the effectiveness will drop because “we need to wait for the data.” Pfizer CEO Albert Boula said on Monday that his company has already begun working on a vaccine that targets omicron. Bancel’s comments led to an early dip in world markets, on fears that the ineffectiveness of vaccines against the new variant could prolong the pandemic.