JOHANNESBURG – Three new laboratory studies are raising concerns that the immune response triggered by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective in protecting against the new coronavirus strain that first emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from laboratory experiments and look at just a few elements of a body’s immune response. Still, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine manufacturers and regulators may need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus evolves.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists at BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by the companies, showed that their vaccine successfully neutralized a variant that was initially detected in the UK. That study did not include the South African strain.
The UK variant has already spread to many other countries, including the USA
More than a year after the pandemic began, the discovery of new variants that appear to have made the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adapt their understanding of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. One concern, the researchers said, is that new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already developed an immune response to previous variants after obtaining Covid-19.