Corona: tens of thousands of Moderna vaccine doses adapted to BA.1 are available

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Corona remains an issue: the number of doses of the bivalent Moderna vaccine, which is also directed against the omicron variant BA.1, available in Austria has reached almost 300,000.

It is an adapted version of the original Spikevax vaccine (called Spikevax Bivalent Original/Omicron BA.1). According to the Ministry of Health, the first deliveries of the adapted vaccine to vaccination centers in the provinces began on Thursday.

Corona: thousands of doses of Moderna vaccine arrived in Austria
Exactly 292,000 doses of the latest Moderna vaccine have arrived in Austria recently. Another 1.4 million doses are expected by the end of the month. Health Minister Johannes Rauch (Greens) took this as an opportunity to appeal for the completion of vaccination protection against Corona. “If you have not yet completed the basic immunization, please take advantage of the extensive offer. For optimal lasting protection, booster vaccinations are necessary after that,” Rauch directed the population. Vaccination is “one of the most important measures to ensure that we get through the fall and winter well.” He said that additional resources are available with the new vaccines to protect the public from severe covid disease. “Get your booster vaccine in the coming weeks for optimal protection,” Rauch shared.

Corona: the presence of omicron variant BA.1
What else happened in the Corona pandemic? According to the latest variant report of the Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES), BA.1 is unlikely to have contributed to the infection in calendar week 35 (August 29 to September 4). In 29,600 cases, BA.1 was detected only seven times, while BA.4/BA.5 were detected 6,097 times. Nevertheless, clinical pharmacologist Markus Zeitlinger advises against waiting until BA.4/BA.5 vaccine variants are available before vaccinating. He says the difference between the original vaccine and the versions adapted to BA.1 is insignificant. If you had a titer of 500 before boosting, it was 5,000 afterward; with the vaccine adapted to BA.1, it was 7,500 after vaccination. The vaccine adapted to BA.4/BA.5 should work even better, “but it won’t be a huge difference,” Zeitlinger suspects.