Media seem to have gone quiet over vaccine tweaks over recent months

[Lencoboy]

Earlier this year, when Alpha was the foremost Covid variant, and also of course with Beta yielding a smaller number of cases at the same time, there was much talk of the vaccine manufacturers tweaking the formulations in order to cope with the 'newer' Covid variants, having been designed around the original variant.

Strangely, and in particular since Delta first started taking over from around April onwards, there's barely been any further discussions about the tweaking of existing vaccines, and also in spite of the third 'booster' jabs now starting, at least not to the general public anyway.

I seriously wonder what's going on, especially as when I first clicked on YouTube on Friday evening there was a video article from The Scum warning about the possibility of a fourth full national lockdown if a vaccine-resistant Covid variant rears its ugly head.

A hypothetical scenario ATM I know, and of course we have to take pretty much everything The Scum (and the Daily Fail, Depress, etc) with a pinch of salt, but I'm just really miffed as to why the lack of discussion about the tweaking of vaccines of late.

Would development have to be started again from scratch in order to be effective against newer variants, which could probably mean not being available until the latter half of 2022 at the earliest?

Just intrigued.

[glassgirlw]

From what I understand, the use of the mRNA vaccines gives the manufacturer an advantage because it is much easier to tweak the formula should any vaccine resistant strains develop. It doesn’t seem like they have to start all over. I read an article Friday saying they hadn’t done this yet because there hadn’t been a new strain yet that significantly evaded the vaccines available. Even the J&J one shot vax was still showing greater than 60% efficacy against hospitalization and death. That’s even better than the yearly flu jab. It did say all manufacturers were ready to tweak the vax as soon as they saw a need for it.

[fishman65]

Of course there is the South African (not sure about its official name) variant that I believe did show vaccine evasion ability. Obviously its been out-competed by Delta's massive transmissibility advantage. Maybe the virus shot itself in the foot there? If vaccines work too well then maybe Delta will mutate to compensate, but as has been mentioned before, evolutionary pressures often involve a trade-off. So Delta could get round vaccines better but lose on transmission.

[glassgirlw]

I had honestly forgotten about the SA variant - good point there. I do remember it had some evasion capabilities. I think because delta has become so prevalent (at least here in the US) we don’t hear as much about the other variants now.

[Pamplemousse]

Of course there is the South African (not sure about its official name) variant that I believe did show vaccine evasion ability.

That one's Beta.

Alpha = "Kent"
Beta = "South African"
Gamma = "Brazil"
Delta = "Indian"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55659820

[ckelley116]

That one's Beta.

Alpha = "Kent"
Beta = "South African"
Gamma = "Brazil"
Delta = "Indian"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55659820

They're actually talking about C.1.2. Detected in South Africa in May with mutations that could help it evade the vaccine.

It hasn't gained a foothold because Delta is stronger. Experts aren't too worried about it, and as everyone else above has stated, mRNA vaccines can be quickly and easily "tweaked" to handle new mutations. There's no grand conspiracy regarding the media not specifically talking about "tweaking". There just isn't a need to at the moment.

[Lencoboy]

Of course there is the South African (not sure about its official name) variant that I believe did show vaccine evasion ability. Obviously its been out-competed by Delta's massive transmissibility advantage. Maybe the virus shot itself in the foot there? If vaccines work too well then maybe Delta will mutate to compensate, but as has been mentioned before, evolutionary pressures often involve a trade-off. So Delta could get round vaccines better but lose on transmission.

As PM has already pointed out, the SA variant is now known as Beta.

There were a few cases of said variant in this country earlier this year, before Delta became the foremost variant from about April onwards, and were extremely newsworthy at the time, but Beta now mostly seems to have petered out, allegedly because of Delta (ironically).

Hopefully Delta is as bad as it gets and that Mu variant that has been briefly mentioned on and off over recent weeks won't turn into anything mega sinister.

Apparently there has already been about 50-odd cases of Mu in this country alone over the past 6 months or so, but thankfully it hasn't gained a major foothold here so far.

Perhaps as far as the lack of news regarding vaccine tweaks is concerned could very well be a case of 'no news is good news', especially if the tweaks are not yet believed to be warranted?

[WiredIncorrectly]

My 2 cents.

A variant of a virus doesn't change how a virus works, but make it act in certain ways.

When Coronavirus infects you it gets inside your cells and make copies of themselves. Sometimes there's a copying mistake, this happens randomly and by mistake. That random mistake is a new variant. This happens with the flu and it's why you need a flu jab every year because the virus changes. Every year the flu is different from the variant before that. The variants that have the ability to easily infect become the big strains. In Darwinian theory they are the strongest, and the strongest survive.

Side note: The same thing happens with Cancer when a cell reproduces without the ability to commit cellular suicide. It all starts with that 1 mistake in copying.

The big concern at the moment is the more people infected, the greater the risk of more mutations. The vaccine doesn't stop the virus from entering your body, or mutating.

It's going to be here like the flu, except COVID-19 is no seasonal, it's all year round. The population will need jabs for as long as COVID-19 is alive. And, just like the flu I believe it it will be impossible to eradicate, which means the potential of needing jabs for the rest of ones life. What effect will that have on the human body?

A great article on how variants can, and already are, evading vaccines: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00121-z

It's a **** show.

[WiredIncorrectly]

Also I think it's the E484K mutation that's the concern now. These mutations that are able to evade vaccines are a huge problem.

It's not an IF, it's a WHEN, one of these mutations take hold. Just a matter of time.

[Lencoboy]

Also I think it's the E484K mutation that's the concern now. These mutations that are able to evade vaccines are a huge problem.

It's not an IF, it's a WHEN, one of these mutations take hold. Just a matter of time.

If that's the case then why don't the vaccine manufacturers put their feet down and start taking action by tweaking the vaccines NOW before it's too late?

We can't afford to be caught napping for the umpteenth time!

[WiredIncorrectly]

If that's the case then why don't the vaccine manufacturers put their feet down and start taking action by tweaking the vaccines NOW before it's too late?

We can't afford to be caught napping for the umpteenth time!

I know they can and do change the vaccines for this reason. I'm not sure if they are able to do it beforehand though because it would require guesswork. They've no doubt got machine learning involved though. The technical side of creating vaccines is very impressive. I haven't checked, but maybe they do something similar with the flu.

A problem just popped into my mind as of typing, but what happens when there's micro variants that are affecting small clusters of people. For example, I could have COVID and spawn a variant that's passed to my partner, he friends etc. With many of these micro variants is it even possible for a single vaccine to protect against this?