Covid-19: Where are we on vaccines and variants?
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n597 (Published 02 March 2021) Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n597Read our latest coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
- Elisabeth Mahase
- The BMJ
Have any new variants emerged?
We’ve heard a lot about B.1.1.7 (first detected in the UK), B.1.351 (first detected in South Africa), and P.1 (detected in Manaus, Brazil), but other variants have also emerged, including one in New York. Named B.1.526, the variant contains the same E484K mutation that has caused so much concern in B.1.351. This mutation is thought to allow the virus to escape some of the body’s immune response. Vaccines developed against the original virus have also been found to be less effective against B.1.351 (table 1). In a preprint released on 25 February,20 researchers said the variant was “surging, alarmingly, in our patient population over the past few weeks” and that patients with this novel variant “were on average older and more frequently hospitalised.” They added that further analysis showed that the B.1.526 variant was “scattered in the northeast of US, and its unique set of spike mutations may also pose an antigenic challenge for current interventions.”
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Main vaccines that have been approved or rolled out in some capacity (such as for emergency use)
What about the variant found in Finland?
The Fin-796H variant, identified by researchers from Vita laboratories and the Institute of Biotechnology at the University of Helsinki, is reported to have mutations similar to those seen in B.1.1.7 and B.1.351. Additionally, …