Experts are increasingly concerned about at least some variants of the coronavirus will present an additional challenge to the distribution of covid-19 by vaccination. Recent data released over the weekend suggests that a variant first found in South Africa may escape the detection of antibodies in some people who have been released infected with older versions of the virus. Although it is very unlikely that these variants will completely evade the immunity provided by vaccines, scientists are preparing for the possibility that vaccines need to be adapted to better suit new strains that are spreading in the population.
Mid-December, scientists in both the UK and South Africa announced the emergence of new strains of the coronavirus that contain worrying genetic variations. Although the variants shared some mutations, it was believed that they evolved independent. Both the British variant – known as 20I / 501Y.V1 or B.1.1.7 – and the South African variant – called 20H / 501Y.V2 or B.1.351 – were quickly established to be more transmissible than previously common strains in thise communities.
Viruses mutate all the time, but wB.1.1.7, B.1.351 and other similar variants are so of concern to scientists, is their collection of multiple mutations associated with the vein protein, an important part of the virus that helps it break into cells to make more of itself. Enough mutations in the right places can change the relationship between a virus and its host, including the ability to infect people whose immune systems already is trained to recognize the virus, either through natural infection or through vaccination. And this is a concern that is starting to look more real, especially for B.1.351.
On Monday, The National Institute for communicable diseases (NICD) —South Africa Public Health Agency – has released results of early work studying B.1.351 and immunity. They exposed the variant to blood samples of 44 covid-19 survivors, to see if the virus will survive against neutralizing antibodies that gave rise to an earlier infection.
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“The blood samples from half of the people we tested showed that all neutralizing activities were lost,” the NICD said. wrote on its website. “This indicates that they can no longer be protected from reinfection.”
In more than 90% of the samples, there was also a reduction in the neutralizing ability displayed by antibodies. It is more difficult to evaluate, but it may indicate that a degree of diminished immunity should be expected. people who are infected early in the pandemic which is then exposed to B.1.351.
These findings is still preliminary and based on a small sample size. And as we said immunity is numerous times intricate. Antibodies are an important aspect of our immune system, but they are not the only part. Our T-cells and B-cells are also the key, and it will cost a lot for any variant to bypass all these defenses at once. This may mean that B.1.351 and similar variants may cause re-infections, but the re-infections may be on average milder than the first time. For people who have already been vaccinated against the coronavirus, these data suggest that B.1.351 may cause more frequent illnesses than previous variants could have done. But again, this is likely to cause fewer diseases (and less serious illnesses) in vaccines than in people with no protection. Not all variants are the same, and the effects it has on immunity and transmission, depends very much on how widespread a variant word in the community.
All that being said, the new data from South Africa is indeed worrying. The British and South African variants are already distributed in several countries, and experts fear they will soon common in these places. Over the weekend, scientists at the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released an article predicting that the B.1.1.7 variant would probably become the dominant strain in the US in March.
At the same time, the same CDC model predicts that higher levels of vaccination over time will significantly reduce the spread of any variant, including B.1.1.7 – an opinion also held by many external scientists. Even a vaccine that loses the effect due to these variants is likely to still have a powerful effect on reducing disease and transmission vaccines to quickly mutate viral diseases such as influenza.
But these new findings, which are expected to be fully presented by the South African government in a few weeks’ time, suggest that we need to keep a close eye on the virus as it continues to develop. Moderna and Pfizer / BioNTech – the companies behind the first two vaccines to reach the US public – have set that their vaccines should be effective against the variants found so far, but they also said that their vaccines could be adapted to better suit the newer tribe if necessary. Data on the study of other human coronaviruses also have suggested that covid-19 vaccines need to be updated periodically to keep up with the changing virus.
These developments should emphasize more than anything why it is more important than ever to reduce our risk of catching and transmitting covid-19. No matter how many mutations the coronavirus captures, it does not stop being dependent on humans to keep spreading. Wear masks and avoid close, prolonged contact indoors with large groups of people will still help to get faster end to the pandemic.