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Comment by hh3k0 | Hacker News Reader

Strikes me as unnecessarily early to make such a claim.

Testing of vaccines against this new variant is already starting.[1] First results in 2 weeks.

Pfizer says that if they have to generate a new vaccine for this variant, it will take about 100 days.[2] That's the great thing about this mRNA vaccine technology - given the gene sequence of a virus, a vaccine can be designed. The original Moderna vaccine was designed in two days.

[1] https://www.newsweek.com/omicron-variant-prompts-concerns-ab...

[2] https://www.msn.com/en-ie/news/world/pfizer-release-statemen...

Did you reply to the wrong comment?

100 days + XXX days for the new approval of the vaccine.

Yes. Although variations on the vaccine require less approval than a totally new one. This process takes place every year for flu vaccines.

Never for mRNA vaccines though - will be interesting to see how the administration/FDA handles this

While I know nothing about vaccine development I guess that a "release often in small batches" might be a better mode than doing mass clinical trials which are slow and costly. As far as I know it's possible from a manufacturing standpoint as the updates would mostly be changes in mRNA code. I think people not dying from being properly immunized outweigh the risk of a small number of people facing side effects if done properly.

Close to mid terms + if it becomes an actual big body count/hospital overflow in the US I'd bank on political pressure to approve fast.

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