The good news is that the new mutations of the COVID-19 coronavirus that occur in Britain, South Africa, Brazil and other countries so far do not look more lethal than other variants. The bad news is that because they spread more easily, more people become infected and die – and the increase in infections gives the virus more chance to mutate. Worse, the new mutations appear to be modestly limiting the effectiveness of Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines, researchers reported Wednesday.
Researchers at Rockefeller University in New York and the National Institutes of Health took blood from ten people vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine and tested the samples with coronavirus variants from Britain, South Africa and Brazil. With some of the samples, the antibodies induced by the vaccine were up to three times less effective at infecting the virus against cells, Dr. Michel Nussenzweig of Rockefeller said. “It’s a small difference, but it’s definitely a difference.”
Neither these findings, nor separate, more hopeful research from Pfizer were judged by peers. Pfizer said on Wednesday that a second study showed that the vaccine was just as effective against several mutations found in the UK. Moderna and AstraZeneca are also testing their vaccines against various mutations.
The vaccines still protect people against the development of COVID-19, say immunologists. “We do not want people to think that the current vaccine is already obsolete. That is absolutely not true,” E. John Wherry told the University of Pennsylvania. “There is still immunity … a good level of protection,” but the mutations “actually diminish how well our immune response recognizes the virus.” The vaccines may need to be adjusted – a fairly easy process for Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccinations – and countries should not rely on vaccinations alone, experts warn.
“We had an arms race between the vaccines and the virus,” says Dr. Buddy Creech, a vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University. The Associated Press. “The slower our vaccine rolls out around the world, the more opportunities we offer this virus to escape” and mutates.
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