4 ms·

My comment is being downvoted by an emotional crowd, it seems, but read this: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.426911v1 https://www.biorxiv.or

My comment is being downvoted by an emotional crowd, it seems, but read this: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.426911v1 https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.01.15.426911v1 "Our experiments indicate that these variants, and potentially others that carry K417N/T, E484K and N501Y mutations, can reduce the neutralization potency of vaccinee plasma." Preprint, not peer-reviewed, but still concerning.

handoflixue 6y ago
TL;DR: It doesn't currently seem like a problem, but it is definitely a topic worth keeping an eye on. "The vaccine generated a weaker immune response against the South African strain, but the antibodies remained above levels that are expected to be protective against the virus, the company said, adding the findings may suggest “a potential risk of earlier waning of immunity to the new B.1.351 strains.” “Out of an abundance of caution and leveraging the flexibility of our mRNA platform, we are advancing an emerging variant booster candidate against the variant first identified in the Republic of South Africa into the clinic to determine if it will be more effective to boost titers against this and potentially future variants,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel said in a statement." Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/25/covid-vaccine-moderna-working-on-covid-booster-shots-for-south-african-strain.html https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/25/covid-vaccine-moderna-workin... Source for my source, because he posts a pretty solid round-up of recent research and well-cited sources every Friday: https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/01/28/covid-1-28-muddling-through/ https://thezvi.wordpress.com/2021/01/28/covid-1-28-muddling-...