Menacing New COVID-19 Variant May Reduce Pfizer Vaccine Efficacy
South African COVID-19 Variant Elicits Weakened Response From Pfizer Vaccine
How COVID-19 Variants Come About
Since viral particles frequently mutate, treating viral infections like COVID-19 is no simple task. Mutations can produce new variants that are more dangerous and, sometimes, can even render existing vaccines useless.
Viral mutations arise from random copying errors that alter the virus’s surface proteins or antigens. Antigens serve as markers for identification and also play an important role in vaccine development.
A new COVID-19 variant found in South Africa is one such example of this, and it looks like the Pfizer vaccine is significantly less effective against it.
What You Should Know About Covid-19 Vaccines and Variants
Viruses mutate over time, and since the start of this pandemic, we have recorded three virulent COVID-19 variants:
The South African variant (or B.1.351) was detected in October 2020, the lethal British variant (or B.1.1.7) was identified in December 2020, and the Brazilian variant (or P.1) was discovered in January 2021.
