The study finds that the currently approved vaccines and monoclonal antibody therapies are providing lower neutralizing activity against the new variants of SARS-CoV-2 of concern, the so-called U.K. and South Africa variants. With the latter, phylogeographic analysis suggests this variant emerged in the Nelson Mandela Bay in August 2020. The U.K. variant was detected in September 2020. This variant has been found to be around 56 percent more transmissible than other causative agents of COVID-19.
The predictive model that suggests concerns with the mutation patterns appears to be supported by the current results of the Novavax vaccine (based on a recombinant spike protein nanoparticle). Clinical trial data has revealed that this vaccine demonstrated 90 percent effectiveness against the most typical form of the coronavirus. However, when compared against the variants of medical interest, the vaccine was found to be just 49.4 percent effective in its South Africa trial (which was conducted using what is officially known as the B.1.351 variant, the U.K. variant is coded B.1.1.7).
Epidemiological data combined with clinical data suggests that coronavirus is moving in a direction that is enabling some variants to resist the current vaccines together with the complimentary therapies (such as REGN-COV), which are designed to reduce the viral spike within global populations. The mutations tend to appear in the spike protein that gives the virus its ‘corona’ appearance when viewed as an electronmicrograph.
The inference of the study is such that the longer the virus continues to be present and the more critical the mutations are that accumulate, then humanity will need to accept that we will be chasing after evolving SARS-CoV-2 continually. In other words, the situation will be similar to influenza where scientists need to calculate the likely strain and develop a vaccine accordingly and role it out. On this basis, an annual coronavirus injection may need to accompany the annual ‘flu shot.
The issue of coronavirus variants predicts virus evolving to escape current vaccines has been reported to the journal Nature, in a study headed “Antibody Resistance of SARS-CoV-2 Variants B.1.351 and B.1.1.7,”
