Covid-19 roundup: As­traZeneca, Pfiz­er come un­der fire for pro­duc­tion de­lays; Mod­er­na con­sid­ers third boost­er dose to squash new vari­ants

The vac­cine race is shap­ing up to be much more than just a sprint to­ward au­tho­riza­tion.

A day af­ter Mer­ck dropped out en­tire­ly, con­tro­ver­sies are sim­mer­ing around As­traZeneca and Pfiz­er/BioN­Tech, J&J says it will come along soon, while Mod­er­na is re­fu­el­ing for the long haul.

With vac­cine roll­out still in bot­tle­necks even across wealthy na­tions that have es­sen­tial­ly bought up ini­tial sup­plies, the emer­gence of new vari­ants is com­pli­cat­ing long-term plan­ning. For late­com­ers, who must now make crit­i­cal de­ci­sions about their still-ex­per­i­men­tal pro­grams, ques­tions re­main on just what lev­els of ef­fi­ca­cy are good enough — and for whom.

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