# Is this as scary as it sounds? - New COVID variant 'real cause for concern' **URL:** \ **Category:** The Quarantine Zone\ **Tags:** covid-quarantine\ **Created:** [December 19, 2020, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-as-scary-as-it-sounds-new-covid-variant-real-cause-for-concern/928405 "2020-12-19T17:50:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 100
**Author:** ![Treppenwitz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treppenwitz/32/3445_2.png) [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2021, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-as-scary-as-it-sounds-new-covid-variant-real-cause-for-concern/928405/100 "2021-02-03T19:06:29Z")
Crossposting from the breaking news thread - a couple of posts detailing plans to tweak existing vaccines in order to protect against emerging new variants: > [@Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/424): > > BMJ article: [Covid-19: Moderna plans booster doses to counter variants](https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n232) In the first approach Moderna said that it would see whether a third “booster dose” of the current mRNA-1273 vaccine added to the approved two dose regimen would further increase neutralising titres against the emerging variants. In a second approach the company said that it had developed a booster vaccine candidate called mRNA-1273.351 against the emerging South African variant. It said that it was beginning phase I studi… > [@Coronavirus COVID-19 (2019-nCoV) Thread - 2021 Breaking News](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coronavirus-covid-19-2019-ncov-thread-2021-breaking-news/929428/426): > > And here’s some more news on possible vaccine modifications to protect against new COVID variants: Prof Andy Pollard, from Oxford University, said tweaking a vaccine was a relatively quick process and would only need small trials before roll-out. There is still strong evidence existing vaccines work well against the mutations that have emerged. Although their overall effectiveness may be weakened a little. Re Pfizer (and Moderna), I found this: As mentioned above, the two mRNA vaccines… j --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-as-scary-as-it-sounds-new-covid-variant-real-cause-for-concern/928405)._