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(CNN) – A variant of the coronavirus that first appeared in South Africa and has now been detected in more than a dozen countries could partially evade vaccines, the researchers said during a presentation Monday.
“We now have very compelling data both from our labs and from many other labs around the world to support the fact that these mutations are problematic,” said Penny Moore, associate professor at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases in South Africa.
Researchers in South Africa and elsewhere are studying whether it can evade the antibodies created by vaccines. Study results are expected within the next week or two.
The researchers are concerned that the vaccines target the spikes at the top of the virus, and this variant has mutations in two different regions of the spike.
“When we see mutations like this specifically in those two regions, it’s a strong indication that the virus has managed to evade neutralizing antibodies; neutralizing antibodies are the types of antibodies that prevent a virus from infecting a cell,” Moore said.
The coronavirus was thought to be relatively stable, but nearly 100 million people have contracted the virus, and each time it is transmitted to another person, it has a chance to mutate.
“It creates more opportunities for the virus to learn how to be resistant to the vaccine,” Paul Bieniasz, a virologist at Rockefeller University, told CNN last week. “The efficacy of the vaccine is likely to decrease over time, but we are not going to fall off a cliff tomorrow.”
Such bad behavior was not expected from a coronavirus, Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute, told CNN.
“This virus really showed us that it can adapt and that it could escape,” he said. “It just goes back to the first rule of virology: don’t underestimate your virus.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “COVID-19 vaccines may not be as effective against the variant first identified in South Africa, researchers say”
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