E-Paper
‘There could be some modest hit in vaccine efficacy’: Expert on new Covid-19 strain
Pfizer Inc. has reportedly started working on generating data to analyse how well blood samples from people inoculated with its vaccine, BNT162b2, against Covid-19 “may be able to neutralize the new strain from the UK.”
The new variant of SARS-CoV-2, which is said to have originated in southeast England, has raised concerns over the effectiveness of the vaccines developed to provide immunity against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19). According to a CNN report, Pfizer Inc. has started working on generating data to analyse how well blood samples from people inoculated with its vaccine, BNT162b2, against Covid-19 “may be able to neutralize the new strain from the UK.”
What are the chances Covid-19 vaccines won’t work against new virus strain?
Earlier on Monday, US President Donald Trump’s Covid-19 vaccine czar said the chances that one set of mutations would completely alter the structures against which the vaccines induce an immune response is “extremely low.” During a press briefing, Dr Moncef Slaoui, chief science advisor to Trump’s vaccine program Operation Warp Speed, told reporters that he expects Pfizer’s and Moderna’s Covid-19 shots will be effective against the new variant of coronavirus found in Britain.
Meanwhile, Moderna said the biotech firm expects that the vaccine-induced immunity against Covid-19 would be protective against the variants found in the UK. It further added that the company will be performing additional tests in the coming weeks to “confirm this expectation.” The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised only the two Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNtech and Moderna.
Some researchers who are analysing the genome of the new variant have suggested that there may be “modest reductions” in vaccine efficacy due to “antigenic drift.” Trevor Bedford, an associate professor in the vaccine and infectious disease division of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, told CNN that there could be “some modest hit in vaccine efficacy, which wouldn’t be good, but I don’t think it would break the vaccine.”
In a series of tweets, Bedford had said that the vaccine developers will likely need a process in the coming years to update the spike variant used in the vaccine to best match circulating viruses. He also suggested connecting immunisation records to genomic surveillance to identify variants involved in breakthrough infections.
Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, on Tuesday said the new virus strain has no impact, as of now, on the effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines developed in India and around the world. India has suspended all flights to and from the UK, starting 11.59pm on December 22 till 11.59 pm on December 31 after several countries announced a ban on inbound travel from the UK.
