Are the new COVID-19 variants more dangerous? Will vaccines work against them?
Nine simple questions about the COVID-19 variants, answered by virologist Jillian Carmichael.
Nine simple questions about the COVID-19 variants, answered by virologist Jillian Carmichael.
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00:00The more space that you give for a virus to run rampant,
00:05the more opportunity you allow for new variants to arise.
00:14A variant is simply another term for a viral mutant.
00:19It's a virus that's been altered just a little bit
00:21from its predecessor.
00:23Every time a virus infects a cell and replicates,
00:27it's making copies of its genome.
00:30And every time the viral machinery
00:32makes another copy of the virus genome,
00:35it has the potential to introduce mutations.
00:39When you hear of these new variants of concern,
00:42as they're talked about in the media,
00:43these are viral variants that occur
00:47when there's a mutation that changes the behavior
00:50of the virus in a way that makes scientists pay attention.
00:53The UK variant has a bunch of different mutations in it.
01:01It has 17 mutations through the genome
01:03from like the wild type original virus.
01:08And importantly, eight of these mutations
01:12are in the spike protein.
01:14Whenever scientists, we see mutations in spike,
01:16we pay attention because it's so important
01:20for virus growth and potentially neutralization.
01:24What we do know about the UK variant
01:26is that it is more contagious than the parental virus.
01:31And the way that we see this
01:33is that most of the new infections
01:34that are occurring in the UK,
01:37at least the ones that are being sequenced,
01:40are from this new variant.
01:41We're not sure how widespread the UK variant
01:45is in the US right now, but it's here
01:48and it's all but certainly spreading.
01:50We know it's more contagious.
01:56Initial reports suggested that it was more transmissible,
01:59more contagious, and it caused a higher viral load.
02:04So that would be like more virus being produced
02:06in an infected person,
02:08which could lead to it being more contagious.
02:12And a recent study by Moderna and NIH
02:16showed that it takes a lot more antibodies
02:20to neutralize the South African variant than the wild type.
02:25So it can still be neutralized,
02:27but it is less effectively neutralized by antibodies.
02:35The California variant, to my knowledge,
02:38is kind of the newest variant of concern
02:41that has been reported about.
02:42And there aren't as many studies out yet
02:45because it's newer.
02:46There is thought that this variant
02:49may have led to this spike in cases
02:51that we've seen in California,
02:53especially Southern California, in the last few months.
02:57But we need more data to be certain of this.
03:04Thankfully, the evidence that we have so far
03:07suggests that, yes, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines,
03:11so these are the mRNA vaccines,
03:14should still protect people
03:17from these new coronavirus variants.
03:20Yesterday, so January 25th,
03:23a preprint was put out from Moderna and the NIH,
03:27the National Institutes of Health,
03:29specifically addressing this question.
03:31And so what they found for the UK variant
03:35is that the antibodies stimulated by vaccination
03:39were able to bind to and neutralize the UK variant
03:44just as well as it did the wild-type virus.
03:46So this indicates that the vaccine
03:49should be just as effective against the UK variant
03:52at protecting people from the UK variant.
03:54So this is very, very good news.
03:56The South African variant can still be neutralized
04:01by patient antibodies,
04:03but it just takes a lot more antibodies to neutralize.
04:06So it's less effectively neutralized.
04:08You just need a lot of antibodies there.
04:10And what scientists believe at the moment
04:12is that the vaccination stimulates enough antibodies
04:18that it will still be able to bind
04:20and neutralize the South African variant,
04:22even though it does it a little less effectively,
04:24there's just enough antibodies there to get the job done.
04:27In regards to COVID,
04:33a booster shot can be thought of as a vaccine update.
04:38So just today,
04:39I saw that Moderna has released a statement
04:43saying that they're already working
04:44on making an updated version of the vaccine.
04:48One thing that's really wonderful
04:50about this mRNA vaccine platform,
04:54this like newer type of vaccine
04:57is that you can quickly produce updated versions
05:02of the vaccine.
05:03A lot of clinical trials will still need to occur.
05:05Again, this is a new technology,
05:07but down the road,
05:10we may be getting booster shots with updated versions
05:13of the spike, the mRNA coding for spike
05:18to help protect us from these new variants
05:21that are circulating out there.
05:27Variants of concern right now,
05:28there's at least four.
05:30The UK variant, which is more contagious,
05:34definitely a variant of concern.
05:35The South African variant, variant of concern.
05:38There's actually a Brazilian variant,
05:40which shares some of the same mutations
05:42as the UK and South African variant,
05:44also a variant of concern,
05:46and then the California variant.
05:51Some of the treatments that are being used right now
05:54for SARS-CoV-2 are antibody therapies.
05:59There's a couple of different types,
06:01but there are several companies
06:03that have developed what we call a monoclonal antibody
06:07to neutralize and stop SARS-CoV-2.
06:11So the emergence of these new variants
06:15could mean that certain monoclonal antibody therapeutics
06:19that have been developed are no longer effective
06:22at neutralizing the virus,
06:23which is really, really sad and devastating.
06:29Yes, new variants will arise in the future.
06:32Whenever a virus replicates and makes copies of its genome,
06:37there's a chance for mutations to be introduced.
06:41This is part of how viruses work.
06:44Viruses mutate a lot,
06:46and so we need to reduce transmission
06:48through social distancing.
06:53No, we're all tired of it.
06:54I'm tired of it.
06:55But it's very important now wearing masks
06:58and, importantly, getting vaccinated
07:01as soon as you have the opportunity to
07:05because the more that people are vaccinated in the population,
07:09that will drastically help to cut down viral transmission
07:14and, again, give the virus less space to mutate
07:18because it'll be replicating less.