Pfizer, Moderna in race to create Omicron booster in just 100 days

Researchers are alarmed by some 30 mutations in Omicron's spike, the protein that facilitates coronavirus's entry to cells

At a plant nestled along a highway 20 miles north of Boston, hundreds of Pfizer workers are gearing up to produce millions of doses of a new vaccine that looks more and more like the next phase of fighting Covid-19. 

Work on the project started the day after Thanksgiving at the 70-acre facility in Andover, Massachusetts, just as the World Health Organization designated a new coronavirus strain, Omicron, a variant of concern. The goal of the effort: make a booster shot customised against the highly mutated virus in less than 100 days.

Researchers are alarmed by some 30 mutations in Omicron’s