JOHANNESBURG: Three new laboratory studies raise concerns that the immune response triggered by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective in protecting against the new strain of coronavirus that first emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from laboratory experiments and only analyze certain elements of a body’s immune response. However, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine manufacturers and regulators will need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus evolves.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists from BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by companies, showed that their vaccine successfully neutralized a variant that was initially detected in the UK. This study did not include the South African strain.
The UK variant has already spread to many other countries, including the United States
More than a year after the pandemic, the discovery of new variants that appear to have made the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adapt their understanding of the coronavirus that Covid-19 causes. One of the concerns, according to the researchers, is that new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already accumulated an immune response to earlier variants after obtaining Covid-19.