SARS-CoV-2 mutation: is the vaccine still effective?

Will the mutation of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, alter the effectiveness of the vaccine? This is the question everyone has been asking since the announcement of the appearance of a new, more contagious strain of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom. The experts want to be rather reassuring: for the moment, nothing proves that this one will be resistant to the vaccines.

This Monday, December 21, the European Medicines Agency authorized the marketing of the vaccine developed by Pfizer / BioNTech, whose announced efficacy is 95%. But will it be effective on the new variant of covid-19 detected in the UK? A question which is debated a few days before the launch of the vaccination campaign within the European Union. According to Boris Johnson, this new strain of the virus is transmitted up to 70% more than the others. “A priori, there is no reason to think that vaccines would be less effective”, wanted to reassure the Minister of Health Olivier Véran on Monday on Europe 1. Before specifying “at this stage, we have no virus variant identified in the world on which vaccines are not effective ”. Indeed, since the start of the epidemic, many variants have been detected but none has been shown to be resistant to the vaccine. So there is little chance that this will not be the case this time around. “If there was ever a variation in RNA, we would have to do what we do every year with the flu: develop the vaccine. Scientists know how to do it, ”he added.

Arnaud Méjean, surgeon at Necker hospital in Paris, explained at the microphone of BFMTV: “However, we have arguments to think that in the panoply of antigens concerned, there will be a sufficient range of antibodies to cover and prevent the disease ”, qualifying however“ this must still be studied in vitro, in clinical research ”. Experts from the European Union have come to the conclusion that the current vaccines against covid-19 remain effective against this new strain. “From all that we know at the present time and following discussions which have taken place between the experts of the European authorities”, the new strain “has no impact on vaccines Which remain “just as effective,” German Health Minister Jens Spahn said on public broadcaster ZDF.