Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) scientists are expected to announce a vaccine effective against all COVID variants, including omicron which has the world worried presently. The vaccine, which has been in development for almost two years, is likely to be unveiled in a few weeks’ time. 

From an early stage, since the army received its first COVID virus DNA sequencing in 2020, they attempted to create a vaccine that could be effective against all emergent variants. Currently, reports suggest that the vaccine has shown positive results in the initial testing stages. 

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Earlier this year, animal trials were also encouraging. Dr. Kayvon Modjarrad, the director of the infectious diseases branch at Walter Reed stated that phase 1 of testing against omicron and other variants was completed in December, and seemed promising. This news arrives in a timely manner, since research suggests that the omicron variant has evaded the protection offered by existing vaccines. 

Ahead of phase 2 and 3 trials, Modjarrad commented, “We need to evaluate it in the real-world setting and try to understand how does the vaccine perform in much larger numbers of individuals who have already been vaccinated with something else initially…or already been sick.” There will be some observations of how the new vaccine interacts with people who have been previously vaccinated with the products developed by Moderna, Pfizer/BionTech, and Johnson & Johnson.

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Compared to these other vaccines, the one being developed by the US army is a spike ferritin nanoparticle vaccine. It has a protein shaped like a soccer ball, and having 24 faces. Hence, it can get attached to the spikes of different COVID variants on many various faces of the protein. 

Currently, the search is on for a partner to help roll out the vaccine. This all-in-one vaccine is being created keeping an eye on the future. Since the virus is expected to mutate, there are likely to be other emergent variants as well. The approach that this army created vaccine takes, could help people prepare against this eventuality.