Army scientists at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center are weeks away from announcing the development of a coronavirus vaccine that will be effective against the Omicron variant and future variants of this SARS virus, Defense One reports.
Known as the SpFN–for Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle–vaccine, the new vaccine has gone through animal testing and finished Stage 1 human testing this month, with both showing positive signs for the effectiveness and safety of the vaccine.
When they began attempts to develop a vaccine, the scientists at Walter Reed aimed at producing a vaccine that would work for any version of the SARS virus stemming from this coronavirus, foregoing trying to prevent individual strains.
“We decided to take a look at the long game rather than just only focusing on the original emergence of SARS, and instead understand that viruses mutate, there will be variants that emerge, future viruses that may emerge in terms of new species,” Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of Walter Reed’s infectious diseases branch, said in an exclusive interview with Defense One. “Our platform and approach will equip people to be prepared for that.”
There was no discussion on how vaccine deniers and conspiracy theorists will react to a vaccine that has “nanoparticle” in its name given that they’ll probably declare it some Big Government tracker.