A woman walks past a closed souvenir stand and government messages on a telephone booth on Oxford Street in London.
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
Photographer: Chris J. Ratcliffe / Bloomberg
The strain of coronavirus in the UK that has caused concern around the world has registered another mutation that seems to make the virus more resistant to vaccines.
Scientists have identified the mutation on 11 different sequences of the new strain, Public Health England said in an update reports Monday. The findings came from a data set of over 200,000 sequences.
The mutation is present in variants that have appeared in South Africa and Brazil and is believed to help the virus withstand vaccines and antibody therapies – and infect people who have already fought Covid.
The change is “a worrying development,” said Julian Tang, a professor and clinical virologist at the University of Leicester. observations on the Science Media Center in the United Kingdom. “Assurances from recent studies showing that mRNA vaccines will continue to provide optimal protection against the original version in the UK may no longer apply.”
It is unclear whether the mutation occurred alone or after a process of recombination with one of the South African or Brazilian variants, a process common with influenza viruses, but not with coronaviruses, according to Tang.
The fact that the mutation appeared on British soil suggests that travel boards to limit the movement of people from South Africa may not be enough, according to Sam Fazeli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. Instead, there is a growing need for vaccine manufacturers to design updates to their photos targeting new strains.
Last week, Johnson & Johnson and Novavax Inc. they both announced the results of late-stage clinical trials showing that these vaccines were somewhat less effective in South Africa.
The growth of new strains of coronavirus has led to the need to vaccinate people sooner before the mutations spread. Drug manufacturers say they are working on booster shots that could increase the potency of their vaccines against new mutations.
The revelation of the new mutation comes as the virus retreats to the UK, which on Monday reported the lowest number of new daily cases since December.
(Updates with analyst comments in the sixth paragraph)