Five reasons not to panic about variants

For the WITH Technology Review, the hype around variants is overblown. There are good reasons not to worry too much, she assures, without completely relaxing preventive measures.

On May 10, the World Health Organization (WHO) added a new virus to its list of “variants of concern” of Sars-CoV-2: B.1.617, allegedly responsible for the outbreak of the epidemic in India. It is the fourth on the list, which already included mutants first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. “Some of the information we have suggests that it is more contagious”, then declared Maria Van Kerkhove, technical manager for Covid-19 at the WHO, during a press conference.

With each new variant, the discomfort grows. The press echoed “doubles mutants” and of “Dangerous variants”, which raise fears that the virus is able to thwart our immune system as well as the most effective vaccines – and thus condemn us to a new containment. For now, however, “The virus has not fundamentally changed”, tempers Kartik Chandran, virologist at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine [à New York].

Of course, vaccines can lose their effectiveness over time, but there is no reason to think that disaster is looming over us. “I don’t believe there is an imminent risk that we will go back to square one”, says Thomas Friedrich, a virologist at the University of Wisconsin’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Vigilance is the order of the day, but not fear. ”

Here are five reasons to embrace this cautious optimism.

1. Vaccines are effective, including against problematic variants

The studies initially suggested that the Covid-19 vaccines currently in use worked less well against certain variants, starting with the first, identified in South Africa (B.1.351). In laboratory tests, antibodies taken from vaccinated individuals did not neutralize this mutant strain as well as the original line. But data from the field, in Qatar, on the contrary reveal a good efficacy of the Pfizer vaccine, including against B.1.351. Complete vaccination protects 75% against B.1.351 variant infections; Admittedly, we are far from the 95% efficacy reported in clinical trials against the original virus, but it is still a “miracle”, says Andrew Read, an infectious disease ecologist at Pennsylvania State University. “These vaccines are excellent, they offer us an immense margin”, he insists.

Other variants apparently know better bypassing our immune system, at least if we are to believe laboratory tests. For example, according to a study of a small number of people, revealed on May 10 [qui n’a pas encore été évaluée par des pairs], the very last variant declared “Worrying” worldwide

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Cassandra Willyard