Sunday, April 4, 2021

How Many Strains of the Coronavirus Are There? About New Variants

Will the COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against the new strains?
You may be wondering if the coronavirus variants have an impact on the effectiveness of our current vaccines.

From what we know so far, it appears that the current vaccines may be less effective for B.1.351, the variant first identified in South Africa. This is currently an area of ongoing, intense research.

Let's look at a snapshot of what some of the data says so far.

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
Large-scale clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found a vaccine effectiveness of 95 percent against the original version of the new coronavirus.

This vaccine is currently authorized for emergency use in the United States.

A recent study investigated the effectiveness of this vaccine for test viruses containing the mutations found in B.1.351. To do this, serum from individuals who had been vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was used.

Researchers found that this serum, which contains antibodies, was less effective against B.1.351. In fact, neutralization of test viruses containing all of the mutations present in B.1.351 was reduced by two-thirds.

What about B.1.1.7, the variant first seen in the U.K.?

A study similar to the one we've discussed above found that neutralization of test viruses with the spike protein of B.1.1.7 was only slightly lower than it was for earlier versions of the coronavirus.

Moderna vaccine
The large-scale clinical trials on the Moderna vaccine determined that vaccine effectiveness was 94.1 percent against the original version of the new coronavirus.

Like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna vaccine has been authorized for emergency use in the United States.

A recent study looked into the effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine for the B.1.1.7 and B.1.351 variants. In order to do this, researchers used serum from individuals who had received the Moderna vaccine and test viruses containing the spike proteins from the variants.

It was found that test viruses with the B.1.1.7 spike protein were neutralized in a similar manner to earlier versions of the coronavirus.

However, neutralization of test viruses with the spike protein of B.1.351 was 6.4-fold lower.

Johnson & Johnson vaccine
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the third COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized for emergency use in the United States.

Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, it only requires one dose.

This vaccine has yet to be tested against specific variants. However, large-scale clinical trials were performed in places where variants are circulating, such as South Africa and South America.

According to the data released from clinical trialsTrusted Source, the effectiveness of this vaccine 28 days after vaccination is:

66 percent effective overall
72 percent in the United States
66 percent effective in South America, where the P.1 variant is circulating
57 percent effective in South Africa, where the B.1.351 variant is circulating
85 percent effective at preventing severe COVID-19 symptoms across all geographical regions

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