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Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine showed promise against the Delta variant first identified in India in a lab study, with a modest decrease in response compared to the original strain, the drugmaker said on Tuesday. The study was conducted on blood serum from eight participants obtained one week after they received the second dose of the vaccine, mRNA-1273. The vaccine provoked an antibody response against all the variants tested, according to Moderna, but one that remained inferior in all cases to the vaccine’s neutralizing activity against the original coronavirus strain first found in China. (6/29)

Moderna said that blood samples from fully vaccinated individuals produced antibodies against multiple variants and that researchers measured only a “modest reduction in neutralizing titers” against the particularly virulent delta, which was first identified in India. “As we seek to defeat the pandemic, it is imperative that we are proactive as the virus evolves,” Moderna chief executive Stéphane Bancel said in a statement. “These new data are encouraging and reinforce our belief that the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine should remain protective against newly detected variants.” (Cunningham, 6/30)

A Pittsburgh man who died weeks after receiving his second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had apparently showed symptoms that met the criteria for a rare, serious blood clot disorder previously only reported in recipients of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca jabs. An outside group of experts from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in an accompanying editorial has noted that "extra caution is needed" before attributing the patient's case to the mRNA-1273 vaccine. Moderna did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment. (Hein, 6/29)

Members of the U.S. military who were vaccinated against COVID-19 showed higher-than-expected rates of heart inflammation, although the condition was still extremely rare, according to a study released on Tuesday. The study found that 23 previously healthy males with an average age of 25 complained of chest pain within four days of receiving a COVID-19 shot. The incident rate was higher than some previous estimates would have anticipated, it said. (O'Donnell, 6/29)

President Biden this month announced plans to ship a half a billion doses of the Pfizer vaccine to the 100 lowest income countries in the world. That would include Sierra Leone and many other sub-Saharan African nations. But there's a looming problem. The Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at minus 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In all of Sierra Leone, population 7.8 million, only one functioning freezer can offer storage at that temperature. It's housed in a complex at the Ministry of Health's medical warehouse compound in the capital Freetown. It's only slightly larger than a residential fridge, and it's already being used to store an Ebola vaccine which requires similar temperatures. (Beaubien, 6/29)