London (CNN) An analysis by British academics, published by the UK Government's official scientific advisory group, says that they believe it is "almost certain" that a SARS-Cov-2 variant will emerge that "leads to current vaccine failure." SARS-CoV-2 is the virus that causes Covid-19.
The analysis has not been peer-reviewed, the early research is theoretical, and does not provide any proof that such a variant is in circulation now. Documents like it are released "as pre-print publications that have provided the government with rapid evidence during an emergency."
The paper is dated July 26, and was published by the British government on Friday.
The scientists write that because eradication of the virus is "unlikely," they have "high confidence" that variants will continue to emerge. They say it is "almost certain" that there will be "a gradual or punctuated accumulation of antigenic variation that eventually leads to current vaccine failure."
They recommend that authorities continue to reduce virus transmission as much as possible to reduce the chance of a new, vaccine-resistant variant.
SkeletonGarden on August 1st, 2021 at 15:11 UTC »
Thanks, I hate it
green_flash on August 1st, 2021 at 13:11 UTC »
Is there a clear pathway to such a vaccine or would it be new territory?
Marry_me_PoppinKream on August 1st, 2021 at 13:07 UTC »
Before people start claiming this as evidence against vaccination. Here are the authors' recommendations for this scenario:
• Monitor antigenic variants and update candidate vaccines to cover antigenic escape variants.
• Conduct clinical trials of re-vaccination with antigenically distant vaccines
• Consider clinical trials of multi-valent vaccines.
• Re-vaccinate vulnerable age groups at regular periods with updated vaccines to the dominant antigenic drift variants to increase an individual’s immunological landscape to SARS-CoV-2 variants.
• Reduce transmission of SARS-CoV-2 within the UK (to reduce risk of point mutations, recombination).
• Minimise introduction of new variants from other territories (to reduce risk of recombination between variants).
• Monitor for reverse zoonoses and if necessary, consider animal vaccination, slaughter, or isolation policies.
• Continue to develop improved prophylactic and therapeutic drugs for SARS-CoV-2.
• Stockpile prophylactic and therapeutic drugs for SARS-CoV-2.