The spread of the delta variant across the U.S. and the world has driven case numbers among unvaccinated people, including children under 12, sharply higher. Global vaccine supply, therefore, remains a top priority for Moderna and its mRNA counterparts, Pfizer and BioNTech, which have been criticized for not widely sharing their production formulas with other drugmakers around the world.
“Uncontrolled spread globally that could result in new variants threaten control of the pandemic everywhere,” Sara Oliver, an official at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in an Aug. 30 meeting of federal vaccine advisers.