Next-gen COVID vax may be needed to tackle emerging variants: Scientists

The spread of COVID-19 variants is not an immediate problem but it’s time already for next-gen preventives to tackle them, say scientists as countries fine-tune their vaccine dissemination programmes and the race to put more vaccines in the market gathers pace.

Work on vaccines will have to continue on parallel tracks one to tackle the SARS-CoV-2 virus with first generation vaccines and the other to prepare for possible mutations and new variants say experts as they map the future course of the infection. Responding to concerns on the effectiveness of current vaccines in the face of emerging variants, immunologist Satyajit Rath said vaccine-resistant virus variants are either not present or not spreading in sufficient scales and rates to be an immediate problem.

And though the present vaccination campaign will indeed contribute to slowing the pandemic, next-generation vaccines to deal with the “most vaccine-resistant of the emerging variant viruses will need to be developed from now even as we begin to vaccinate communities with the first-generation vaccines”, the scientist from New Delhi’s National Institute of Immunology said.

According to experts, the current COVID-19 vaccines are directed at the spike protein of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and expect to trigger formation of antibodies that prevent the spike protein of the virus from sticking to human cells during infection.

Immunologist Vineeta Bal, with time the effectiveness of current vaccines will decrease as the virus will mutate in the future. “A single new mutation in the currently prevalent virus is unlikely to be sufficient,” Bal said.