How will COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers adapt to variants?
By adjusting their vaccinations, a process should be easier than coming up with the original shots.
Viruses constantly mutate as they spread, and most changes are not significant. The first generation COVID-19 vaccines apparently work against today’s variants, but manufacturers are already taking steps to update their prescriptions if the health authorities decide it is necessary.
COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are manufactured with new technology that is easy to update. The so-called mRNA vaccines use a piece of genetic code for the vein protein that covers the coronavirus so that your immune system can learn to recognize and fight the right thing.
If a variant with a mutated ear protein emerges that the original vaccine cannot recognize, companies will exchange that genetic code for a better match – if and when regulators decide it is necessary.
Updating other COVID-19 vaccines can be more complicated. The AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, uses a harmless version of a cold virus to carry the protein gene into the body. An update requires growing cold viruses with the updated spike gene.
The Food and Drug Administration said studies on updated COVID-19 vaccines do not have to be as big or long as for first-generation shots. Instead, several hundred volunteers were able to receive experimental doses of a revamped vaccine and have their blood tested for signs that improved the immune system as well as the original vaccines.
Even harder is deciding if the virus is enough to change shots.
Worldwide, health authorities will monitor coronavirus mutations to detect vaccine-resistant mutations. They will also have to decide whether to protect a refurbished vaccine against more than one variant.
In general, the process will be similar to what already happens with flu vaccine. Influenza viruses mutate much faster than coronaviruses, so influenza injections are adjusted every year and must be protected against multiple strains.
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