How Worried Should Investors Be About the South African Coronavirus Variant?

The B1351 coronavirus variant from South Africa poses a threat to the currently authorized vaccines from Moderna (NASDAQ: MRNA) and BioNTech (NASDAQ: BNTX)/Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) because they weren't specifically designed to protect against that variant. In this video from Motley Fool Live, recorded on Feb. 22, Fool.com contributors Brian Orelli and Keith Speights discuss the ins and outs of the vaccines' potential to protect against the variants and what the companies are doing to deal with the new challenge. Brian Orelli: We got some data last week published in the New England Journal of Medicine on the coronavirus vaccines protecting against the South African variant -- that's the B1351 -- by Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, the neutralization was weaker by about two-thirds.