KazPost

Kazakhstan News
Friday, Mar 29, 2024

Coronavirus: fears the virus is learning how to resist vaccines

Coronavirus: fears the virus is learning how to resist vaccines

US company Novavax reported that its vaccine was nearly 90 per cent effective in clinical trials in Britain, but the figure fell to 49 per cent in South Africa.

New data showing that two Covid-19 vaccines are far less effective in South Africa than in other places they were tested have heightened fears that the coronavirus is quickly finding ways to elude the world’s most powerful tools to contain it.

The US company Novavax reported this week that although its vaccine was nearly 90 per cent effective in clinical trials conducted in Britain, the figure fell to 49 per cent in South Africa – and that nearly all the infections the company analysed in South Africa involved the B. 1.351 variant that emerged there late last year and has spread to the United States and at least 30 other countries.

Johnson & Johnson announced on Friday that its new shot was 72 per cent effective against preventing moderate or severe illness in the United States, compared with 66 per cent in Latin America and 57 per cent in South Africa.

Laboratory tests had suggested that the vaccines authorised in the US – one from Pfizer and BioNTech, the other from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health – trigger a smaller immune response to the South Africa variant.

Now there is evidence from tests in people that some variants are less vulnerable to certain vaccines.

“From an evolutionary biology perspective, this is totally expected and anticipated,” said Dr Michael Mina, a Harvard epidemiologist. “But it never feels good to be validated on something so scary.”

Researchers once believed it would take several more months, or even years, for the virus to develop resistance to vaccines. They said the speedy evolution is largely a result of the virus’ unchecked spread.

More than 100 million people have been infected worldwide, and each of those infections is an opportunity for the virus to randomly mutate.

A mutation that happens to give the virus an advantage – the ability to resist the body’s natural defences, for example – can become the basis for a heartier variant.

One early sign that this process was under way was the significant number of people who were contracting the coronavirus a second time. It appeared that the training their immune systems received during the first infection was failing to protect them from new versions of the virus.

Scientists at Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech worried that the same thing could happen with immunity induced by their vaccines. In laboratories, they took several versions of the virus and exposed them to blood samples from a small number of people who had been vaccinated.

The neutralising antibodies produced in response to Moderna’s vaccine were equally effective against the original coronavirus and the B.1.1.7 strain that emerged in the United Kingdom but were far less effective against the South Africa strain. Pfizer’s vaccine was only slightly less effective against the South Africa variant compared with the others.

Experts had cautioned that laboratory tests were an imperfect model for understanding the immune response in people.

Other parts of the immune system, such as T-cells, might play a role in fighting a variant, even when neutralising antibodies fall short, said Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard epidemiologist.

That is why the Novavax trial – the first to test the interactions between variants and vaccines in the real world – was so concerning.

“Whether people who have been vaccinated get infected with the variant – that’s the real proof in the pudding,” said Dr Otto Yang, an infectious-disease researcher at UCLA.

Novavax cautioned that its South Africa study, which included about 4,400 patients, was too small to offer a precise measurement on the vaccine’s efficacy.

The Johnson & Johnson results provided further evidence that the problem was serious.

Experts said the weaker performance of the vaccine in South Africa – where it was tested on about 6,500 people – almost certainly was a result of the predominance of the variant circulating widely there. Researchers believe that it is more contagious than other variants and that it has become more common in South Africa and elsewhere since the trial began in September.

Researchers said variants were also likely to blame for the subpar showing of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Latin America – where it was tested in more than 17,000 people in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru.

The mutations of greatest concern are on the spike protein on the surface of the virus, because the current crop of vaccines train the immune system to recognise that protein. Mutations there increase the likelihood that the virus will slip by undetected.


Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention


Mina, the Harvard epidemiologist, likened the process to searching for a criminal by memorising the appearance of only his nose and mouth. At first, this may prove sufficient. But if the criminal gets a nose job, investigators will wish they learned about his eyes, ears and hair as well.

Mina said a more diverse arsenal of vaccines, employing a variety of approaches, is needed.

In the meantime, Moderna has announced efforts to develop a booster shot to add to its current two-shot regimen to fend off the South Africa variant. The company also plans to test whether a third shot of the original formula could help with other strains.

BioNTech, the company that worked with Pfizer on its shot, is also considering developing an adjusted vaccine.

The United States reported its first known cases of the South Africa variant on Thursday, in two people in South Carolina. The UK strain, which is also thought to be more contagious, is also circulating there.


Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases Anthony Fauci


In a briefing for reporters Friday, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the confirmation that more transmissible strains are now in the US is a “wake-up call” that underscores the need to rapidly vaccinate Americans.

“Vaccinating as many people as we can, as quickly as we can” is the key to slowing the ability of the virus to mutate, he said. “Viruses cannot mutate if they cannot replicate.”

The US is vaccinating an average of 1.2 million people a day, said Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Experts say that is far too slow, because there’s no knowing what kind of advanced variants will exist by the time the vaccination campaign reaches critical mass.

They stress that vaccination must be accompanied by defensive tactics such as masking and social distancing until case numbers are negligibly low.

“If you think you’re going to simply vaccinate your way out of this, it’s going to be like whack-a-mole,” said Susan Butler-Wu, director of clinical microbiology at LA County-USC Medical Center.

An effective vaccination campaign must eventually stretch around the world. If an impressive strain were to pop up next year in, for example, Brazil, even a fully vaccinated US could be in danger.

“You can vaccinate the hell out of America,” said Mina, but “until everyone is protected, we’re all still at risk.”

Fauci called for bolstering the government’s ability to detect new viral mutations. Genetic sequencing efforts have been fragmented, relying on academics and other groups to voluntarily upload their findings. The US sequences just 1 per cent of the millions of positive samples collected during routine coronavirus testing.

“We’re shining a flashlight around in the dark, hoping we spot dangerous variants,” said Anne Rimoin, an epidemiologist at UCLA. “What we really need to do is flip on the lights.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

KazPost
0:00
0:00
Close
It's always the people with the dirty hands pointing their fingers
Paper straws found to contain long-lasting and potentially toxic chemicals - study
FTX's Bankman-Fried headed for jail after judge revokes bail
Blackrock gets half a trillion dollar deal to rebuild Ukraine
America's First New Nuclear Reactor in Nearly Seven Years Begins Operations
Southeast Asia moves closer to economic unity with new regional payments system
Today Hunter Biden’s best friend and business associate, Devon Archer, testified that Joe Biden met in Georgetown with Russian Moscow Mayor's Wife Yelena Baturina who later paid Hunter Biden $3.5 million in so called “consulting fees”
Singapore Carries Out First Execution of a Woman in Two Decades Amid Capital Punishment Debate
Google testing journalism AI. We are doing it already 2 years, and without Google biased propoganda and manipulated censorship
Unlike illegal imigrants coming by boats - US Citizens Will Need Visa To Travel To Europe in 2024
Musk announces Twitter name and logo change to X.com
The future of sports
Unveiling the Black Hole: The Mysterious Fate of EU's Aid to Ukraine
Farewell to a Music Titan: Tony Bennett, Renowned Jazz and Pop Vocalist, Passes Away at 96
Alarming Behavior Among Florida's Sharks Raises Concerns Over Possible Cocaine Exposure
Transgender Exclusion in Miss Italy Stirs Controversy Amidst Changing Global Beauty Pageant Landscape
TikTok Takes On Spotify And Apple, Launches Own Music Service
Global Trend: Using Anti-Fake News Laws as Censorship Tools - A Deep Dive into Tunisia's Scenario
Arresting Putin During South African Visit Would Equate to War Declaration, Asserts President Ramaphosa
Hacktivist Collective Anonymous Launches 'Project Disclosure' to Unearth Information on UFOs and ETIs
Typo sends millions of US military emails to Russian ally Mali
Server Arrested For Theft After Refusing To Pay A Table's $100 Restaurant Bill When They Dined & Dashed
The Changing Face of Europe: How Mass Migration is Reshaping the Political Landscape
China Urges EU to Clarify Strategic Partnership Amid Trade Tensions
Europe is boiling: Extreme Weather Conditions Prevail Across the Continent
The Last Pour: Anchor Brewing, America's Pioneer Craft Brewer, Closes After 127 Years
Democracy not: EU's Digital Commissioner Considers Shutting Down Social Media Platforms Amid Social Unrest
Sarah Silverman and Renowned Authors Lodge Copyright Infringement Case Against OpenAI and Meta
Why Do Tech Executives Support Kennedy Jr.?
The New York Times Announces Closure of its Sports Section in Favor of The Athletic
BBC Anchor Huw Edwards Hospitalized Amid Child Sex Abuse Allegations, Family Confirms
Florida Attorney General requests Meta CEO's testimony on company's platforms' alleged facilitation of illicit activities
The Distorted Mirror of actual approval ratings: Examining the True Threat to Democracy Beyond the Persona of Putin
40,000 child slaves in Congo are forced to work in cobalt mines so we can drive electric cars.
Historic Moment: Edgars Rinkevics, EU's First Openly Gay Head of State, Takes Office as Latvia's President
An Ominous Shift in Warfare: Western Powers Risk War Crimes and Violate International Norms with Cluster Bomb Supply to Ukraine
Bye bye democracy, human rights, freedom: French Cops Can Now Secretly Activate Phone Cameras, Microphones And GPS To Spy On Citizens
The Poor Man With Money, Mark Zuckerberg, Unveils Twitter Replica with Heavy-Handed Censorship: A New Low in Innovation?
The Double-Edged Sword of AI: AI is linked to layoffs in industry that created it
US Sanctions on China's Chip Industry Backfire, Prompting Self-Inflicted Blowback
Meta Copy Twitter with New App, Threads
The New French Revolution
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF Application Refiled, Naming Coinbase as ‘Surveillance-Sharing’ Partner
Corruption in the European Parliament - Business as usual
UK Crypto and Stablecoin Regulations Become Law as Royal Assent is Granted
Paris Suburb Grapples with Violence as Curfew Imposed: Saint-Denis Residents Express Dismay and Anger
A Delaware city wants to let businesses vote in its elections
Alef Aeronautics Achieves Historic Milestone with Flight Certification for World's First Flying Car
Google Blocked Access to Canadian News in Response to New Legislation
French Politicians Advocate for Pan-European Regulation on Social Media Influencers
×