News of coronavirus variants dominated the headlines in recent weeks, with the nation’s leading infectious disease specialist warning that one strain in particular may become the dominant strain in the U.S. in March. The variants also led many to ask an important question: Will existing COVID-19 jabs be effective against new strains or does the world need new vaccines?
For now, the “jury is open” on the matter, said Andrew Pollard, the lead investigator for the Oxford vaccine trial, according to Reuters.
But, he noted, “all developers are preparing new vaccines, so if we need them, we will have them available to be able to protect people.”
Three variants, in particular, were of concern to experts: one variant of the coronavirus first identified in the UK at the end of last year, known as B.1.1.7, another identified in South Africa, dubbed B.1.351, and another first found in Brazil, now known as P.1.
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In January, Moderna vowed confidence in the ability of its COVID-19 vaccine to remain effective against South African and UK variants, following the results of a study yet to be reviewed by peers. However, the company said at the time that it plans to test a booster injection “to further increase neutralization bonds against emerging strains”, as well as to advance another candidate for reinforcement variant specifically against the South African variant.
Pfizer, maker of the first coronavirus vaccine to see emergency approval in the United States, also plans to explore a booster injection against the variants.
Meanwhile, Johnson & Johnson recently announced that its single-injection coronavirus vaccine was 66% effective in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 in a global trial, and 57% effective in South Africa 28 days after vaccination.
Over the weekend, however, South Africa announced that it had temporarily suspended the use of a coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford after preliminary findings showed that the vaccine had little impact in reducing mild to moderate disease. variant B.1.351 in young people.
An AstraZeneca spokesman previously told Fox News that the study failed to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness among severe cases due to its experimental design.
“I think there is clearly a risk of confidence in how people can see it,” Pollard said of the study, told Reuters. “But, as I said, I don’t think there is any cause for alarm today.”
“The really important question is about serious illnesses and we didn’t study that in South Africa because that was not the purpose of the study, we were specifically asking questions about young adults,” he added.
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Pollard noted that as long as vaccines provide “sufficient” immunity to prevent serious illnesses, he remains hopeful that vaccines will ultimately still be the way out of the world to the pandemic.
“As long as we have enough immunity to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death, we will be well into the future with the pandemic,” he said.
Alexandria Hein and Kayla Rivas of Fox News contributed to this report.