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In a hospital in Berlin, a man draws a syringe
Photo: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS
It is primarily the mutations from Great Britain and South Africa that are currently worrying virologists.
For all that is known so far, these variants of Sars-CoV-2 are spreading faster.
And the big question is: Are the vaccines also effective against these altered virus variants?
As a laboratory study by Biontech, Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) now shows, the drug manufacturers' vaccine seems to lose only slightly of its effectiveness against the new variants found in South Africa.
Tests have shown that the development of a new vaccine for these variants of the coronavirus is not necessary, said the Mainz-based company and its US partner Pfizer.
The study was carried out on blood samples from people who had received the vaccine.
There is less than a two-fold decrease in antibody titers, suggesting that the vaccine is likely still effective against viruses with the South African variant called E484K and N501Y mutations.
However, the results have some caveats and need to be viewed carefully.
The study, financed by the pharmaceutical companies, has not yet been published in a specialist magazine, but only uploaded to a preprint server.
They have not yet been assessed by independent specialist colleagues.
In addition, not all mutations of the new South African variant were taken into account.
Encouraging results
The scientists are currently working to develop a virus with the full set of mutations and expect the results to be in about two weeks, according to Pei-Yong Shi, one of the study's authors and a professor at UTMB.
The results are more encouraging than another, also unreviewed, study by Columbia University scientists on Wednesday that used a slightly different method and showed that the antibodies generated by the vaccinations were significantly less effective against the South African variant.
One possible reason for the difference could be that the Pfizer results are based on an engineered coronavirus, while the Columbia study uses a pseudovirus based on a different type of virus, said Shi of the UTMB.
He believes the results in pseudoviruses should be validated with the real virus.
The study also showed even better results against several key mutations from the highly transmissible British variant B.1.1.7.
According to Shi, they are also working on a manipulated virus with all mutations of this variant.
More than 30 countries are now affected
According to Biontech and Pfizer, attempts will be made to adapt the vaccine if there are other new and more dangerous variants.
Biontech boss Ugur Sahin had already said that an adjustment was theoretically possible within six weeks.
The new variants of the coronavirus are spreading in more and more countries.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday, the mutant initially registered in Great Britain has now been detected in 70 countries.
According to scientists, it is more contagious than the original variant of the coronavirus.
The WHO also recorded a greater distribution area for the mutation initially detected in South Africa.
The number of countries affected rose by eight to 31 within a week.
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