How would COVID-19 vaccine makers
adapt to variants?
The Associated Press
www.asianreporter.com
February 28, 2021
How would COVID-19 vaccine makers
adapt to variants?
By tweaking their vaccines, a process
that should be easier than coming up with the original shots.
Viruses constantly mutate as they
spread, and most changes aren’t significant. First-generation
COVID-19 vaccines appear to be working against today’s variants,
but makers already are taking steps to update their recipes if
health authorities decide that’s needed.
COVID-19 vaccines by Pfizer and
Moderna are made with new technology that’s 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 variant with a mutated spike
protein crops up that the original vaccine can’t recognize,
companies would swap out that piece of genetic code for a better
match -- if and when regulators decide that’s necessary.
Updating other COVID-19 vaccines could
be more complex. The AstraZeneca vaccine, for example, uses a
harmless version of a cold virus to carry that spike protein
gene into the body. An update would require growing cold viruses
with the updated spike gene.
The Food and Drug Administration said
studies of updated COVID-19 vaccines won’t have to be as large
or long as for the first generation of shots. Instead, a few
hundred volunteers could receive experimental doses of a
revamped vaccine and have their blood checked for signs it
revved up the immune system as well as the original vaccines.
More difficult is deciding if the
virus has morphed enough to modify shots.
Globally, health authorities will
monitor coronavirus mutations to spot vaccine-resistant
mutations. They’d also have to decide whether any revamped
vaccine should protect against more than one variant.
Overall the process would be similar
to what already happens with the flu vaccine. Influenza viruses
mutate much faster than coronaviruses, so flu shots are adjusted
every year and must protect against multiple strains.
