Scientists are working hard to test whether the mutations found in new variants of the coronavirus could circumvent the immunity offered by the currently developed vaccines. Tthe first results of this work are encouraging: They suggest that the Pfizer vaccine is still effective against a major mutation found in these variants. Hhowever, more research is still needed before we are fully reassured.
Preliminary results were released this week on the bioRXiv prepress website by a team of scientists from Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch. They took blood samples from people who were fully vaccinated and tested them against strains of the virus that carry the N501Y mutation, which has been seen in variants found for the first time in the UK and South Africa and is considered an important reason why these strains are more transmissible. sscientists have he feared that the mutation could alter the structure of the virus enough to allow it to “escape” the detection of the immune system of survivors or vaccinated people.
At the tests, the blood of these patients was still able to neutralize the N501Y strain of the virus, performing as well as against other variants. This indicates that this mutation alone will not protect the virus from our weapons. The team also tested other mutations seen in the UK or South Africa variants and found similar results.
“So now we are testing 16 different mutations and none of them have really had a significant impact. That’s the good news ”, study author and Pfizer scientist Philip Dormitzer said Reuters Friday. “That does not mean that the 17th will not go.”
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In fact, no research has yet been done on another worrying mutation seen in the South African variant, called E484K. And although it may be difficult for a single mutation to affect the vaccine’s effectiveness, experts have warned that multiple mutations in a variant could change it collectively enough to avoid the antibodies provided by the vaccine, at least partially weakening the vaccine’s effectiveness. In other words, these findings are promising, but there is still a lot of verification to be done.
Dormitzer and his team – and no doubt other scientists – will continue testing the vaccine against New mutations and variants, and data from this research will be available in the coming weeks. In the meantime, the real world may provide some useful information in the near future. So far, about 17 million people worldwide Received at least one dose of a covid-19 vaccine (most require two doses), including 6.25 million Americans. Iin the middle of a stopviolent pandemic, more cases of these variants are being reported all around the world. If our vaccines are not working as expected because of these new versions of the virus, we’ll know soon.