With new changes being discovered in the UK, South Africa, Brazil, New York and many more, scientists are now trying to find out if the standard vaccines for COVID-19 will be effective against the strains. those new and whether completely new perspectives will be needed.
However, by tweaking vaccines, apparently, the process should be easier than coming up with the original pictures.
Viruses always circulate as they spread, and most modifications do not matter. First-generation COVID-19 vaccines appear to be working against changes today, but manufacturers are already taking steps to update their prescriptions if health authorities decide it is needed.
COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna are made with new technology that is easy to update. The so-called mRNA vaccines use a piece of genetic code for the spike protein that coats the coronavirus, so your immune system can learn to recognize and fight the real thing.
If a variable with a mutated spike protein changes that the original vaccine does not recognize, companies would figure out that genetic code piece for better matches – if and when regulators decide it is necessary.
Updating other COVID-19 vaccines could be more complicated. The AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, uses a harmless version of a cold virus to carry that spike protein gene into the body. Cold viruses needed to be updated with the updated spike gene.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said studies of updated COVID-19 vaccines do not have to be as large or as long as the first generation of shots. Instead, a few hundred volunteers could receive trial doses of a revaccinated vaccine and have their blood checked for signs of reviving the immune system in addition to the original vaccines.
The hardest part is determining if the virus has moved enough to change scenes.
Globally, health authorities monitor coronavirus mutations to see mutations that are resistant to vaccination. They also need to decide whether a reformulated vaccine should protect against more than one variant.
Overall the process would be similar to what already happens with the flu vaccine. Flu viruses move much faster than coronaviruses, so flu shots change each year and require protection against several strains.