Pfizer, Moderna testing vaccine effectiveness against new strain of COVID-19 found in the U.K.

COLUMBIA, SC (WOLO)– Pfizer and Moderna say they are testing to see if their vaccines work against the new COVID-19 strain which was found in the United Kingdom and other countries. Moderna says it believes its vaccine would protect against the mutation, but they are doing additional tests in the coming weeks to confirm.

Pfizer is generating data from blood samples of those already injected with their vaccine to see if it works against the new strain. Both companies say that COVID-19 has mutated before and their vaccines worked against those variations, but researchers studying the new strain are concerned that it could diminish the effectiveness of the vaccines.