Will the coronavirus vaccine work against the new variant? University of Pennsylvania is the weight of the doctor cutter

Will a new form or mutation of a coronavirus reported in the United Kingdom raise new questions, such as will the vaccine still work?

The good news is that most researchers believe that yes, the vaccine will still work but only if in this case, Pfizer and Moderna are testing its vaccine against this new variant.

Microbiologist Susan Weiss, Ph.D. Has been studying coronavirus for four decades and is now co-director of Penn’s Research Center on Coronavirus and Other Emerging Pathogens.

For this new type, she says there is still a lot to learn and whether it spreads the virus quickly has not been scientifically proven yet.

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“I mean if the virus just spreads so fast because people are less careful and go to parties? It’s a correlation, it’s not an observation of cause and effect,” Dr. Weiss said.

She thinks this is unlikely to affect the variant vaccine because the vaccine develops antibodies against many parts of the virus called spike proteins, not just this mutated part.

Vaccine manufacturers Pfizer and Moderna are still testing it. “It’s a good thing but I’m sure they’re confident it won’t show anything different.”

The virus is constantly changing. “The best thing we can do now is slow down the spread of the virus, giving it less chance of change,” said Dr. Weiss.

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“Instead of being afraid of it, keep doing what we’re doing,” said Weiss

The only reason this variant was found is because the researchers were testing more samples of the virus.

The CDC will increase testing in January. Weiss says they will also begin to find this type in their research.