New coronavirus variants could cause more reinfections, require updated vaccines

[Shiloh]

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/202...se-more-reinfections-require-updated-vaccines


New coronavirus variants could cause more reinfections, require updated vaccines
By Kai KupferschmidtJan. 15, 2021 , 4:55 PM

Science’s COVID-19 reporting is supported by the Pulitzer Center and the Heising-Simons Foundation.

When the number of COVID-19 cases began to rise again in Manaus, Brazil, in December 2020, Nuno Faria was stunned. The virologist at Imperial College London and associate professor at the University of Oxford had just co-authored a paper in Science estimating that three-quarters of the city’s inhabitants had already been infected with SARS-CoV-2, the pandemic coronavirus—more than enough, it seemed, for herd immunity to develop. The virus should be done with Manaus. Yet hospitals were filling up again. “It was hard to reconcile these two things,” Faria says. He started to hunt for samples he could sequence to find out whether changes in the virus could explain the resurgence.

On 12 January, Faria and his colleagues posted their initial conclusions on the website virological.org. Thirteen of 31 samples collected in mid-December in Manaus turned out to be part of a new viral lineage they called P.1. Much more research is needed, but they say one possibility is that in some people, P.1 eludes the human immune response triggered by the lineage that ravaged the city earlier in 2020...

 

[Vibrant62]

Having read the above article, it seems to me that the best way forward would be as follows.

With the novel variants that are emerging some mutations seem to be arising frequently and independently in multiple locations. Multiple case study articles that have discussed e.g. use of convalescent plasma in immunocompromised individual who are infected for a prolonged period, with a resultant variant emerging within host with 18-22 odd mutations emerging after a 3m infection period.. This suggests to me (at any rate) that however well adapted to humans this virus is, it isn't fully there yet.

So what is the solution? Why not have trivalent vaccines (as we do for influenza) - using the mRNA vaccines as an example, why not include three variants - e.g. one with the mRNA from the original SARS-Cov-2 virus, one with e.g. the UK B1117 variant and one with the P1 Brazil variant? That way we may head off more of the potential for viral evolution leading to immunological escapes?

The only problem here is manufacturing scale and capabilities, and I dont have the Pfizer manufacturing / production etc information to comment on the feasibility of doing this. But it might be a way to get ahead a bit instead of playing permanent catch up, which we very likely will do otherwise.

 

[Emily]

Since the surge followed the holidays, could be behavior combined with the previous infection estimate being too high. There is some disagreement among experts.)

https://www.mypanhandle.com/health/who-cites-human-behavior-more-than-variants-as-virus-spreads/
WHO cites human behavior more than variants as virus spreads
Health

Posted: Jan 15, 2021 / 02:05 PM CST / Updated: Jan 15, 2021 / 03:16 PM CST

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization’s emergencies chief said Friday that the impact of new variants of COVID-19 in places like Britain, South Africa and Brazil remains to be seen, citing human behavior for some recent rises in infection counts.
“It’s just too easy to lay the blame on the variant and say, ‘It’s the virus that did it,’” Dr. Michael Ryan told reporters. “Well unfortunately, it’s also what we didn’t do that did it.”
That was an allusion to holiday merrymaking and other social contacts plus loosening adherence — in pockets — to calls from public health officials for people to respect measures like physical distancing, regular hand hygiene and mask-wearing...

 

[sharon sanders]

bump this