Overview of What scientists know about variants and Covid-19 vaccines

What scientists know about the new variants and the Covid-19 vaccines When it comes to the new variants and the Covid-19 vaccines, some of the news is very good. But some is potentially very bad indeed. Andrew Joseph STAT

here is now real evidence that at least one coronavirus variant seems to elude some of the power of Covid-19 vaccines. What, exactly, that means for the pandemic is still being sussed out.

Even if the vaccines are less powerful against the variant, they still appear to protect people from the worst outcomes, like hospitalization or death. But the loss in efficacy against the B.1.351 variant in clinical trials suggested to some experts that the immunity the shots confer may not last as long against that form of the coronavirus. Or that the vaccines won’t be as powerful of a drag on transmission, the way scientists hope the shots will be for other versions of the virus.

More urgently, experts said, the disparate results serve as a warning flag that the world needs to step up its current vaccination campaigns and expedite efforts to envision what Covid-19 vaccines 2.0 might look like.

“It’s a huge relief to know that the vaccines still seem to protect against hospitalization and deaths,” said Emma Hodcroft, a molecular epidemiologist at the University of Bern. “The No. 1 thing at the moment is to try and reduce in any way the cost that this virus charges us as it spreads through societies. But it’s definitely true the loss in efficacy, it raises some worrying questions.”

Below, STAT lays out the good and the bad news about vaccines and the B.1.351 variant, and what may be coming next. ...