US Army creates a single vaccine against all Covid variants

New Delhi, December 22

Within weeks the scientists at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research of the US Army are expected to announce that they have developed a vaccine that is effective against Covid-19 and all its variants, even Omicron, as well as from previous SARS-origin viruses that have killed millions of people worldwide, Defense One reported.

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the US Department of Defense.

The achievement is the result of almost two years of work on the virus. The US Army lab received its first DNA sequencing of the Covid-19 virus in early 2020. Very early on, Walter Reed's infectious diseases branch decided to focus on making a vaccine that would work against not just the existing strain but all of its potential variants as well, the report said.

Walter Reed's Spike Ferritin Nanoparticle Covid-19 vaccine, or SpFN, completed animal trials earlier this year with positive results. Phase 1 of human trials, which tested the vaccine against Omicron and the other variants, wrapped up this month, again with positive results that are undergoing final review, Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, director of Walter Reed's infectious diseases branch said, Defense One reported.

Unlike existing vaccines, Walter Reed's SpFN uses a soccer ball-shaped protein with 24 faces for its vaccine, which allows scientists to attach the spikes of multiple coronavirus strains on different faces of the protein.

"It's very exciting to get to this point for our entire team and I think for the entire Army as well," Modjarrad said, the report added.

The vaccine's human trials took longer than expected, he said, because the lab needed to test the vaccine on subjects who had neither been vaccinated nor previously infected with Covid.

Increasing vaccination rates and the rapid spread of the Delta and Omicron variants made that difficult. 

"With Omicron, there's no way really to escape this virus. You're not going to be able to avoid it. So I think pretty soon either the whole world will be vaccinated or have been infected," Modjarrad said, the report added.

—     IANS