A vaccine-resistant variant of coronavirus “likely” to emerge

by



[ad_1]

  • Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Fox that it was likely that a vaccine-resistant variant would emerge.
  • Bourla said Pfizer could tailor a shot for such a variant within 95 days of its discovery.
  • The CDC director said the virus could be “a few mutations away” from its evolution to evade vaccines.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told Fox News on Tuesday that he believed it was “likely” that a vaccine-resistant variant of the coronavirus would eventually emerge.

“Whenever a variant appears in the world, our scientists bypass it,” Bourla said. “And they’re doing research to see if this variant can escape the protection of our vaccine.

“We haven’t identified any yet, but we think it’s likely that one day one of them will emerge.”

Bourla added that Pfizer could produce new versions of its vaccine to fight a variant within three months of its discovery.

“We have built a process that within 95 days from the day we identify a variant as a variant of concern, we will be able to have a tailor-made vaccine against that variant,” Bourla said.

This is not the first time that this vaccine escape concern has been raised, but the opinions of experts are divided.

“These vaccines work very well to protect us from serious illness and death, but the big concern is that the next variant that might emerge – a few mutations, potentially, out of the way – could potentially escape our vaccines,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Director Rochelle Walensky said at a press briefing on July 27.

The UK government’s advisory group, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said higher rates of virus circulation and transmission created “more opportunities for the emergence of new variants.”

The CDC estimated that 93% of US states were at a “high level of community transmission” on Monday. New daily cases have more than quadrupled in the past month.

But Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada, told the Telegraph that the possibility of a strain resistant to the vaccine was unlikely.

“It would take so many mutations in the spike protein that this virus would not ‘work’ anymore,” Rasmussen said.

Loading Something is loading.

Watch Bourla’s clip here:



[ad_2]

Source link