Half Doses of Moderna Vaccine Produce Neutralizing Antibodies

Re:Half Doses of Moderna Vaccine Produce Neutralizing Antibo... by mlyle on Sunday February 14, 2021 @06:16PM (#26137235)

Yes. You need vaccines and needles with low dead space. They could comfortably extract 6 and even in some cases 7 doses from vials.

Initially some doses were wasted because it was unclear whether that was a legitimate thing to do.

Then, after explicit guidance, they said "OK, these count as 6 doses, then, for the purpose of our Federal contract!"

Then, Feds scrambled to ship supplies to ensure low-dead-space syringes were being used everywhere.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half Doses of Moderna Vaccine Produce Neutralizing Antibo... by tgsovlerkhgsel on Sunday February 14, 2021 @08:29PM (#26138044)

Also, at least in some places there was a policy that you can't mix the leftover from two vials. So you could have three vials that each have only 0.8 doses in them, you have 0 extra doses, not 2.

That feels like one of the points where bureaucracy is stupidly killing people.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Half Doses of Moderna Vaccine Produce Neutralizing Antibo... by mlyle on Sunday February 14, 2021 @08:36PM (#26138087)

Nah. That's a good rule. Pooling of vials has caused contamination and severe consequences to patients in the past, and it also compromises traceability.

Having bad outcomes from pooling and not knowing whether it came from the combining practice, a certain vial, an entire lot, or even worse-- the fundamental vaccine-- could take the entire vaccination program off the rails. That's not worth it to stretch supplies a few percent.

[ Parent | on HN ]