9 simple questions about COVID-19 variants

Brut America

Are the new COVID-19 variants more dangerous? Will vaccines work against them?   Nine simple questions about the COVID-19 variants, answered by virologist Jillian Carmichael.

Transcript

00:00The more space that you give for a virus to run rampant,

00:05the more opportunity you allow for new variants to arise.

00:14A variant is simply another term for a viral mutant.

00:19It's a virus that's been altered just a little bit

00:21from its predecessor.

00:23Every time a virus infects a cell and replicates,

00:27it's making copies of its genome.

00:30And every time the viral machinery

00:32makes another copy of the virus genome,

00:35it has the potential to introduce mutations.

00:39When you hear of these new variants of concern,

00:42as they're talked about in the media,

00:43these are viral variants that occur

00:47when there's a mutation that changes the behavior

00:50of the virus in a way that makes scientists pay attention.

00:53The UK variant has a bunch of different mutations in it.

01:01It has 17 mutations through the genome

01:03from like the wild type original virus.

01:08And importantly, eight of these mutations

01:12are in the spike protein.

01:14Whenever scientists, we see mutations in spike,

01:16we pay attention because it's so important

01:20for virus growth and potentially neutralization.

01:24What we do know about the UK variant

01:26is that it is more contagious than the parental virus.

01:31And the way that we see this

01:33is that most of the new infections

01:34that are occurring in the UK,

01:37at least the ones that are being sequenced,

01:40are from this new variant.

01:41We're not sure how widespread the UK variant

01:45is in the US right now, but it's here

01:48and it's all but certainly spreading.

01:50We know it's more contagious.

01:56Initial reports suggested that it was more transmissible,

01:59more contagious, and it caused a higher viral load.

02:04So that would be like more virus being produced

02:06in an infected person,

02:08which could lead to it being more contagious.

02:12And a recent study by Moderna and NIH

02:16showed that it takes a lot more antibodies

02:20to neutralize the South African variant than the wild type.

02:25So it can still be neutralized,

02:27but it is less effectively neutralized by antibodies.

02:35The California variant, to my knowledge,

02:38is kind of the newest variant of concern

02:41that has been reported about.

02:42And there aren't as many studies out yet

02:45because it's newer.

02:46There is thought that this variant

02:49may have led to this spike in cases

02:51that we've seen in California,

02:53especially Southern California, in the last few months.

02:57But we need more data to be certain of this.

03:04Thankfully, the evidence that we have so far

03:07suggests that, yes, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines,

03:11so these are the mRNA vaccines,

03:14should still protect people

03:17from these new coronavirus variants.

03:20Yesterday, so January 25th,

03:23a preprint was put out from Moderna and the NIH,

03:27the National Institutes of Health,

03:29specifically addressing this question.

03:31And so what they found for the UK variant

03:35is that the antibodies stimulated by vaccination

03:39were able to bind to and neutralize the UK variant

03:44just as well as it did the wild-type virus.

03:46So this indicates that the vaccine

03:49should be just as effective against the UK variant

03:52at protecting people from the UK variant.

03:54So this is very, very good news.

03:56The South African variant can still be neutralized

04:01by patient antibodies,

04:03but it just takes a lot more antibodies to neutralize.

04:06So it's less effectively neutralized.

04:08You just need a lot of antibodies there.

04:10And what scientists believe at the moment

04:12is that the vaccination stimulates enough antibodies

04:18that it will still be able to bind

04:20and neutralize the South African variant,

04:22even though it does it a little less effectively,

04:24there's just enough antibodies there to get the job done.

04:27In regards to COVID,

04:33a booster shot can be thought of as a vaccine update.

04:38So just today,

04:39I saw that Moderna has released a statement

04:43saying that they're already working

04:44on making an updated version of the vaccine.

04:48One thing that's really wonderful

04:50about this mRNA vaccine platform,

04:54this like newer type of vaccine

04:57is that you can quickly produce updated versions

05:02of the vaccine.

05:03A lot of clinical trials will still need to occur.

05:05Again, this is a new technology,

05:07but down the road,

05:10we may be getting booster shots with updated versions

05:13of the spike, the mRNA coding for spike

05:18to help protect us from these new variants

05:21that are circulating out there.

05:27Variants of concern right now,

05:28there's at least four.

05:30The UK variant, which is more contagious,

05:34definitely a variant of concern.

05:35The South African variant, variant of concern.

05:38There's actually a Brazilian variant,

05:40which shares some of the same mutations

05:42as the UK and South African variant,

05:44also a variant of concern,

05:46and then the California variant.

05:51Some of the treatments that are being used right now

05:54for SARS-CoV-2 are antibody therapies.

05:59There's a couple of different types,

06:01but there are several companies

06:03that have developed what we call a monoclonal antibody

06:07to neutralize and stop SARS-CoV-2.

06:11So the emergence of these new variants

06:15could mean that certain monoclonal antibody therapeutics

06:19that have been developed are no longer effective

06:22at neutralizing the virus,

06:23which is really, really sad and devastating.

06:29Yes, new variants will arise in the future.

06:32Whenever a virus replicates and makes copies of its genome,

06:37there's a chance for mutations to be introduced.

06:41This is part of how viruses work.

06:44Viruses mutate a lot,

06:46and so we need to reduce transmission

06:48through social distancing.

06:53No, we're all tired of it.

06:54I'm tired of it.

06:55But it's very important now wearing masks

06:58and, importantly, getting vaccinated

07:01as soon as you have the opportunity to

07:05because the more that people are vaccinated in the population,

07:09that will drastically help to cut down viral transmission

07:14and, again, give the virus less space to mutate

07:18because it'll be replicating less.

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