JOHANNESBURG – Three new laboratory studies raise concerns that the immune response caused by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective in protecting the new strain of coronavirus that has emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from experiments done in the laboratory and look only at certain elements of a body’s immune response. Nevertheless, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine makers and regulators will need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus develops.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists from BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by the companies, showed that their vaccine neutralized a variant initially detected in the United Kingdom. The study does not include the South African tribe.
The British variant has already spread to many other countries, including the USA
More than a year into the pandemic, the discovery of new variants that make the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adjust their understanding of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. One concern, according to researchers, is that the new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already built up an immune response to earlier variants after receiving Covid-19.