Fully vaccinated and boosted San Diego County residents are among those nationwide who will be able to participate in a new clinical trial that seeks to test combinations of vaccines that target variants, including Beta, Delta and Omicron.
To date, the only vaccines approved for general use are those focused on the initial strain that emerged in Wuhan China in 2019. As the virus has mutated, causing additional waves of infection, companies have worked to update their initial offerings, retargeting the same mRNA technology on new features appearing in the coronavirus’s latest versions.
“When a new variant comes along, whatever it is, we want to have an immune response that matches as closely as possible,” Little said.Initially set for 600 participants, the research effort will expand to 1,500 as additional variant vaccines are ready for testing. Enrollment will be targeted toward specific age groups, with the study skewing toward the older age groups that are at significantly greater risk of severe consequences if they get infected. About 45 percent of COVAIL participants will be age 65 or older.