A pre-print study in portal bioRxiv dated January 26, 2021, is now official in Nature journal. The authors say they have evidence viruses are evolving to escape our vaccines. This means current vaccines and certain monoclonal antibodies may be less effective at neutralizing new variants. And the future possibility of reinfection is growing.
The Evidence In The First Novavax Results
The Novavax trials in United Kingdom reported 90% efficacy. However, this fell to 49% in the South African ones where local variant B.1.351 dominated. The study authors conclude ‘the virus is traveling in a direction that is causing it to escape from current vaccines. And also the therapies we direct against the viral spike.’
Study author David Ho believes ‘we may be condemned to chasing after the evolving SARS-CoV-2 continually’. As we do with the influenza virus if the SARS-CoV-2 keeps evolving. Therefore we have slow, even stop virus transmissions, by redoubling avoidance measures and expediting vaccination programs.
How Mutant Viruses Are Evolving to Escape Our Vaccines
Columbia University Irving Medical Center explains the immune system responds by making antibodies that can neutralize the virus. However, when David Ho and colleagues examined blood samples from people with Moderna or Pfizer jabs, the response was weaker.
The neutralizing efficacy of those vaccines fell by 50% in the face of UK variant B.1.1.7. But the impact on the South African variant was more severe. ‘We have to stop the virus from replicating,’ David Ho advises, because this will slow, or stop viruses evolving to escape our vaccines.
However, this would presumably require a worldwide, synchronized effort to be effective. Public health is a community issue, and at the end of the day we all belong to the same tribe.
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