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Huge study of another Covid virus vaccine underway

Washington - Novavax’s Covid vaccine to be studied in the US.

A huge study of another Covid-19 vaccine candidate is getting underway Monday as states in the US continue to roll out scarce supplies of the nation’s first shot options.

The US has authorized emergency use of two vaccines, one made by Pfizer and BioNTech and the other by Moderna, but doses will be rationed for months.

The candidate made by Novavax Inc. is the fifth to reach final-stage testing in the US Some 30,000 volunteers are needed to prove if this vaccine - a different kind than its Pfizer and Moderna competitors - really works and is safe.

“If you want to have enough vaccine to vaccinate all the people in the US who you’d like to vaccinate - up to 85% or more of the population - you’re going to need more than two companies,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, told The Associated Press.

The study, which is funded by the US government, is open to all adults but will focus on high-risk older adults and volunteers from Black and Hispanic communities who have been hard-hit by the virus. Two-thirds of volunteers will receive the vaccine and the rest will get dummy shots.

The Novavax candidate uses lab-grown harmless copies of the spike protein that coats the coronavirus to train the body to recognize if the real virus comes along. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines instead use a newer technology, injecting the genetic code for that protein.

In the US, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca also have vaccine candidates in late-stage US testing.