VACCINE EFFECTIVE AGAINST MINK COVID: SCIENTIST

COPENHAGEN A potential vaccine candidate being developed in Denmark has in early animal trials proven effective against a mutated novel coronavirus strain from mink discovered in the country, a scientist working on the vaccine said on Thursday.

Early studies of the mutated virus strain, known as Cluster 5, showed the virus to have a reduced sensitivity toward antibodies, possibly compromising the efficacy of future vaccines, authorities said last week. But antibodies from rabbits treated with an early-stage vaccine candidate from Denmark's State Serum Institute successfully beat down the Cluster 5 variant, according to Anders Fomsgaard, leading scientist at SSI.