What is the latest in advances in the COVID-19 vaccine? Can currently authorized vaccines protect against new emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2? In this Hope Behind the Headlines article, we examine these and other issues.
New and possibly more contagious variants of SARS-CoV-2 – which is the virus that causes COVID-19 – are emerging in countries around the world. Add to this the fact that the global number of COVID-19 cases is currently over 95 million, and it can be difficult to remain optimistic that we will see an end to the pandemic soon.
Even so, scientists have not stopped working with vaccines, which are essential to control the spread of the new coronavirus in the long run.
In this Hope Behind the Headlines article, we look at what experts have to say about whether currently authorized vaccines can protect us against new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
We also provide an overview of a promising candidate vaccine currently being tested, which recently made headlines.
The experts explained several times that, in order to contain SARS-CoV-2 and prevent further coronavirus outbreaks in the future, vaccines are of the utmost importance.
There are currently eight COVID-19 vaccines authorized in countries around the world.
To date, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which is an mRNA vaccine, has been authorized for use in 50 countries. This includes the United States, the United Kingdom and the 27 countries that make up the European Union.
The vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is also an mRNA vaccine, is currently authorized in 36 countries. This includes the USA, UK and EU countries.
Sputnik V, which is a viral vector vaccine developed by the Russian research institute Gamaleya, is authorized in eight countries: Algeria, Argentina, Belarus, Bolivia, Guinea, Russia, Serbia and the West Bank.
Right behind is the Oxford-AstraZeneca viral vector vaccine, which has obtained authorization for use in seven countries. These are Argentina, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Morocco and the United Kingdom
Other vaccines that have been authorized in certain countries are:
- Covishield, a viral vector vaccine authorized in India
- Covaxin, an inactivated vaccine authorized in India
- the Sinopharm vaccine, also inactivated, which is authorized in six countries, including China, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates
- the Sinovac vaccine, also inactivated, authorized in China, Indonesia and Turkey
At a global forum held on January 15, 2021, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus – director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) – said:
“The development and approval of several safe and effective vaccines less than a year after the virus was isolated and sequenced is an amazing scientific achievement.”
The United Kingdom has imposed new blockades in the face of the increasing cases of COVID-19. These increasing numbers may be due to a new, apparently more infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2.
South Africa and Brazil have also reported the emergence of new variants that have raised some concern.
One of the main questions that people around the world are asking about the emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 is this: Will the COVID-19 vaccines be effective against them?
So far, experts and pharmaceutical companies that produce the vaccines currently available have expressed optimism that the vaccines will be effective against emerging variants and strains.
When talking to Medical News Today earlier this month, both Pfizer and NIAID stated that there is no reason to suspect that their vaccines would not work against the SARS-CoV-2 variant identified in the UK
“At the moment, NIAID scientists believe that SARS-CoV-2 vaccines supported by Operation Warp Speed will provide protection against SARS-CoV-2 [U.K. variant], Including […] Modern and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration [FDA]. “
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna-NIAID, whose vaccines are currently authorized for use in the United States and the United Kingdom, offer mRNA vaccines. They contain genetic information about the virus.
Our cells then produce the viral Spike protein encoded in that information and present it to our immune system. This, in turn, allows our immune system to “learn” how to fight the virus, which will equip us for future infections with SARS-CoV-2.
According to experts, mRNA technology is adaptable enough that, in theory, scientists could easily “adjust” mRNA vaccines to ensure effectiveness against emerging variants or strains of a virus.
Dr. Uğur Şahin, CEO of BioNTech, stated that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine should work against different variants of SARS-CoV-2, against which his colleagues have already tested the vaccine. He also noted that, in any case, his vaccine is easily adaptable.
Other scientists have also noted that at least some of the COVID-19 vaccines that have gained authorization worldwide must be adaptable to remain effective against emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Regarding the variant that emerged in South Africa, Dr. Julian W. Tang – a clinical virologist at the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom – commented:
“Even if the South African variant becomes more widespread and dominant, mRNA (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) and adenovirus vector vaccines (Oxford-AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V) can be modified to be more suitable and effective against this variant in a few months. “
“In the meantime,” he added, “most of us believe that existing vaccines are likely to work to some extent to reduce infection / transmission rates and serious illnesses against the UK and South Africa variants – like the various mutations have not altered protein S [which helps the virus gain entry into healthy cells] so that the current vaccine-induced antibodies do not bind. “
Although some vaccines have already obtained authorization for use in several countries, there are still many vaccine candidates currently in clinical trials.
Some of the candidates in late-stage tests are showing promise, offering hope that more vaccines will be available worldwide by the end of 2021.
One of the main candidates is the vaccine candidate developed by the pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson. This candidate is also known as the Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate.
Johnson & Johnson’s experimental viral vector vaccine uses a modified adenovirus, or common cold virus, as the “base” candidate for the vaccine. This carries the gene for the SARS-CoV-2 Spike protein.
Unlike some of the vaccines that have already obtained authorization for use, the company is testing this vaccine candidate in a single dose and two doses to create immunity.
The Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate was already showing promise in the first tests, although these were briefly stopped in October 2020 due to one of the test participants developing an “unexplained disease”.
Testing has resumed, and the company recently released the interim results for phases 1 and 2.
These results indicate that the vaccine candidate was well tolerated by the participants in general, suggesting that it is safe. The candidate vaccine also appeared to induce an immune response in those who received it, suggesting that it may also be effective against SARS-CoV-2.
Phase 3 trial data is also expected to be available by the end of January, according to a statement by Johnson & Johnson. Once this data is available, the company expects to apply for FDA emergency use authorization.
According to a recent New York Times report, Dr. Paul Stoffels – the scientific director of Johnson & Johnson – commented that “I hope somewhere in March [the company will] be able to contribute ”to US vaccination efforts
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