COVID-19 variants first detected in the UK and South Africa and now circulating globally are not a current threat to the effectiveness of the first vaccines, but mutations will be closely monitored because “they could be a problem,” NIAID Director Anthony Fauci told Axios.
The whole picture: Vaccinations are ongoing, albeit with a slow start. Returning to the normal goal depends on achieving 70% -85% herd immunity in the population, says Fauci. Although there are some concerns, mutations could circumvent vaccines, he says they are more of a problem for certain treatments than for vaccines.
What happens: Viruses move frequently, but often these changes are small and not cause problems with treatments or vaccines. Public health officials have been closely monitoring SARS-CoV-2 variants.
B.1.1.7 it does not appear to be more virulent or eliminate the effect of the vaccine, based on what British doctors say, says Fauci.
- B.1.1.7 is more transmissible because it binds more easily to the ACE2 receptor, which is how the virus enters cells.
- This pushes the need for faster vaccinations, says Carlos del Rio, a distinguished professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine.
- “If R-Nought goes from 2.5 to 2.9 in a totally naive population, after 10 cycles of transmission, instead of 9,000 infected people, you have 42,000 infected people,” warns del Rio.
Variant 501.V2 is “a little more worrying about the possibility of interfering with some of the monoclonal antibodies,” based on preliminary findings, says Fauci.
- Monoclonal antibody treatments target exactly one specific region of the virus and “if the mutation happens to be in that epitope, this could remove the effect” of the treatment, he says.
- Vaccines, on the other hand, “induce a polyclonal response against many different aspects of the spike protein,” Fauci points out. “For something to really bypass the effectiveness of the vaccine, there must be a lot of mutations that are all in the right places. “
What I’m looking for: Scientists are tracking strains and testing them against vaccines.
- “If it doesn’t impact the vaccine, you’re fine to go. If so, you need to make a few minor changes to the vaccine in order to avoid the changes that occur in mutations,” says Fauci.
- With the “plug-and-play” nature of mRNA vaccines, it is much easier to change the structure of these vaccines, he adds.
- And because there is now a large amount of data about the mRNA-based vaccine platform, “it’s likely that the FDA will consider it just a strain modification that doesn’t require squaring,” he says.
Bottom line: “You always have to take these things seriously, follow them carefully and hope that there won’t be a problem. But if there is, you have to adapt to it,” says Fauci. “And now we have the technology to make that easy enough.”