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Two cases of a variant coronavirus first discovered in South Africa and reducing the effectiveness of certain vaccines have been identified in the bay area, in Alameda and Santa Clara counties, said Wednesday the Governor Gavin Newsom.
These are the first two cases of this variant, called B.1.351, found in California. They were identified by scientists at the Stanford Clinical Virology Lab on Tuesday evening and reported to the state on Wednesday morning.
Variants that are more infectious or reduce vaccine effectiveness pose a threat to the state’s ability to quickly control and end the pandemic, public health officials said. More than 150 cases of a variant first identified in the UK and known to be more infectious have been found in California, including in Alameda and San Mateo counties.
Another pair of closely related variants identified in California quickly spread throughout the Bay Area and southern California. Scientists believe these variants respond to vaccines, but they are currently testing to see if they reduce effectiveness. They are also studying whether the variants are more infectious.
The South African variant is considered to be of particular concern because studies have shown that it is able to partially evade the body’s immune response, whether generated from a vaccine or from a previous infection. by the coronavirus. So far, vaccines appear to prevent serious illness and death from the variant.
“The UK variant, it’s still vaccine sensitive and it’s going to spread anyway. But let’s put this one back in the box, ”said Dr. George Rutherford, an infectious disease expert at UCSF.
As of Tuesday, nine cases of the South African variant had been identified in three states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This number does not include new California cases.
“Those variants are here,” Alameda County Chief Medical Officer Dr Nicholas Moss said at a news event Wednesday. “We have to prepare and plan accordingly.” Because relatively few cases of coronavirus are genomically sequenced, he said, “we have only a very limited picture of their spread locally.”
The two vaccines currently available in the United States, manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, offer some protection against B.1.351, but perhaps less than the original virus from China for which they were designed.
The Moderna vaccine elicited a six-fold weaker immune response against the South African variant than previous variants, the company said in late January after conducting a small study. But even that lower level of immune response, or neutralizing antibodies, is probably enough to protect against COVID-19, the company said.
Still, Moderna is testing a booster vaccine to see if it can provide more immunity.
Likewise, the Pfizer vaccine also induced a slightly lower level of neutralizing antibodies against the variant, but this should still be enough to protect against COVID-19, according to studies by Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch. The difference is “unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness,” Pfizer said.
South Africa recently stopped using a vaccine manufactured by AstraZeneca due to reduced efficacy. This vaccine is not yet approved in the United States. Scientists in South Africa also said that people who had previously been infected with other variants of the coronavirus appear to be likely to be re-infected with the new one.
Moss from Alameda County has expressed optimism about the vaccines. But in the meantime, he said, “We have to stick to the things that we know are working right now. That means, cover the face, keep away and limit gatherings.”
“The most important thing with variants is to just limit the amount of COVID available,” he added.
San Francisco Chronicle editors Aidin Vaziri and Catherine Ho contributed to this report.
Erin Allday is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @erinallday
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