The coronavirus is changing and so are its properties.
What happens if a variant appears that the vaccination does not work against?
While the vaccination * is progressing slowly, syringe after syringe, one fear mixes with the burgeoning cautious hope: The coronavirus could
mutate in
such a way
that neither the vaccines nor an infection that has been overcome will protect against infection and disease.
Chancellery chief Helge Braun recently told the “Bild am Sonntag” that if the number of infections rose parallel to the vaccination, the risk
that the next virus mutation would render the vaccine ineffective would
grow
.
Immune coronaviruses: development of immune escape variants
The CDU politician and doctor is not alone with this assessment.
Scientists have also been dealing with the topic for a long time.
Sometimes it sounds a bit alarmistic, sometimes like a more theoretical danger
.
Experts from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) deduce that Sars-CoV-2 can basically adapt well from the occurrence of virus variants that are partially or completely resistant to neutralizing antibodies, for example.
The type B.1.351 first detected in South Africa could, in their opinion, "represent a basis for the development of so-called immune escape variants".
Such escape variants, in German: escape variants, have genetically changed in such a way that they are no longer recognized by antibodies that were formed against the original coronavirus.
Luka Cicin-Sain from the Helmholtz Center for Infection Research in Braunschweig calls it
"
camouflage
". "Viruses do not become completely invisible," says Cicin-Sain.
If the so-called selection pressure increases - for example due to a growing proportion of vaccinated people in the population - the viruses would have an increasingly difficult life, explains Cicin-Sain.
Only the strongest can then prevail.
This increases the likelihood that mutants will spread that are not or not well recognized by the immune system.
The double vaccination dose also offers good protection against previously known corona mutants, says the researcher.
Especially since the proportion of antibodies in the blood after a vaccination is usually significantly higher than after a corona infection.
Mutants can reduce vaccination protection
Health authorities such as the RKI or the World Health Organization have been analyzing virus types for some time in order to keep a close eye on so-called "worrying variants".
These are currently B.1.351 (South Africa), P.1 (Brazil) and the mutant B.1.1.7 known from Great Britain
.
According to Cicin-Sain, the fact that the latter has meanwhile also become widespread in Germany is not due to the fact that it is an escape variant - rather it binds better to cells.
"Superglue glue instead of eagle owl, if you will."
But what if a real escape route prevails
?
A group of non-governmental organizations such as Oxfam recently published a survey of epidemiologists and virologists from 28 countries that suggested mutations could render current vaccines against Covid-19 ineffective in a year or less.
Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen and the Ulm University Hospital have found that an antibody used for Covid-19 therapy was completely ineffective for variants B.1.351 and P.1.
Stefan Pöhlmann and Markus Hoffmann from the German Primate Center therefore classify the two as escape variants.
It can be assumed, however, that B.1.351 and P.1 would still be inhibited by the available vaccines
.
"However, vaccination protection may be reduced and of shorter duration."
According to the researchers, the development of variants that are no longer inhibited by vaccines that are now available is “an extreme scenario, but cannot be ruled out”.
Corona vaccines are adaptable
So in the worst case everything to zero?
It's probably not that dramatic.
It is true that easing plans for measures to combat pandemics would probably be thrown back by weeks or even months, as modeler Viola Priesemann from the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen recently said.
But the previous vaccines already offer at least
some protection
, as Cicin-Sain says.
According to the President of the Austrian Association of Vaccine Manufacturers, Renée Gallo-Daniel, the current vaccines can also be changed within six to eight weeks
so that they are also effective against mutants
.
Because they are then considered a new vaccine, they would have to be approved as well.
The European Medicines Agency has already planned a procedure for this case that enables rapid approval for these adapted vaccines, as the President of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, Klaus Cichutek, recently assured.
"
After approval, the production must then be converted,
" explains Gallo-Daniel.
That too takes time.
It should be clarified whether the entire production or only a part has to be converted.
It is not the only question that politicians and authorities have to answer - as quickly as possible - if the worst comes to the worst, as the head of the association makes clear: Who decides when to switch to a modified vaccine?
Do both vaccines need to be used?
Is it possible that a vaccine could be developed that contains multiple corona strains and is adjusted regularly - similar to the flu?
Last but not least, no one can really say how long the vaccination protection actually lasts.
(dpa) * Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
Read more
: New virus mutations through lockdown relaxation: Virologist warns against this combination.
These viruses and bacteria make us sick
These viruses and bacteria make us sick