There is strong evidence that the mutant vaccine found in South Africa may need an updated vaccine, Coronavirus Scientific Advisory Board member professor Serhat Ünal said in a statement Sunday.
Speaking to Habertürk newspaper columnist Muharrem Sarıkaya, the scientist said that the new strain may be able to resist the conventional vaccines.
“This shows that people will have to vaccinate again,” he said.
“The vaccines appear to inhibit the South African strain of the coronavirus 10 times less,” he said.
“The new strain shows that it can escape the protective effects of the vaccine and can re-enter another cell, using another method. This also shows that the resistance to the virus is 10 times less, raising the question of the need for an updated vaccine, ”concluded Ünal.
In a potentially frightening conclusion, an initial study last week found that a new coronavirus variable discovered in South Africa poses a “major relapse risk” and raises concerns. on vaccine efficacy. At the same time, separate studies have raised some UK concerns, suggesting that it is likely to be restricted by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Several new mutations – each with several genetic mutations – have emerged in the last few weeks, raising fears of an increase in infection as well as suggestions that the virus may begin to trigger an immune response, whether from a previous infection or a vaccine. These new variants, found in the UK, South Africa and Brazil, are migrating to the spike protein of the virus, which allows the virus to infect human cells and thus plays a key role in driving disease.
But it is one mutation in particular – called E484K and present in the variants found in South Africa and Brazil but not the British one – that experts are particularly concerned about. immunity “escape.”
In a new study, not yet peer-reviewed, researchers in South Africa tested the variant found there – called 501Y.V2 – against blood plasma from COVID-19 patients recovered. They found that it was against the neutralization of antibodies taken from pre-infection but said more research was needed to determine the effectiveness of other parts of the immune response.