Vaccines And Variants: Answers To Help You Avoid Panic During COVID's Second Surge
Vaccines are helpful against mutations of COVID-19 too.
Dear reader,
As India struggles through shortages of oxygen and hospital beds and a palpable sense of panic during the current (second) wave of COVID-19, I thought it would be useful to focus on solid answers to questions related to the efficacy of vaccines — especially against the new variants that are out there. These variants, which are basically mutations of the same COVID-19 virus, are numerous, but virologists say that vaccines do the same job against them as well.
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Vaccines and variants: Some concerns addressed
BOOM founder Govindraj Ethiraj spoke with Dr Jeremy Kamil, Associate Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center at Shreveport. For those of you interested in listening to it, here’s the YouTube link. You can also read about it here. Here’s a summary of the chat:
1. “All these variants are going to be controlled by the current vaccines”
Dr Jeremy Kamil: It puzzles me that every time we find a new variant—and we are going to find new variants—some of them are going to be of somewhat increased transmissibility, maybe a tiny bit is going to resist vaccines, but all these variants are going to be controlled by the current vaccines. So, it is important to understand that B.1.617 variant, it does have some mutations on it that have been found in the other variants, so I do not see something spectacularly concerning in itself.
2. “Wave of infections are most likely due to human behaviour”
Dr Jeremy Kamil: I think that the big wave of infections seen in India is most likely due to human behaviour. This is because people are mixing indoors without masks and India is a very crowded country with a very large population. So, when you have a lot of people in a small space, without wearing masks or following advisories, you are going to see spikes in cases.
3. “Variants are not super viruses, they do not escape vaccines altogether”
Dr Jeremy Kamil: Vaccines control the most terrible consequences of any of those variants which are hospitalisation and death. If you get a good vaccine, which most of the vaccines are, you will be protected from the worst consequences. So, it is important that people do not lose sight of the fact that these variants are not super viruses, they do not escape vaccines altogether. They are probably more likely to reinfect someone who has already recovered from a natural case of COVID than someone who has been given a good vaccine.
4. “Get a vaccine as quickly as possible”
Dr Jeremy Kamil: Vaccines are very likely to protect us and so it is important that we do not lose sight, just because these viruses are mutating and evolving a little a bit, which is exactly what we expect them to do that should not make people think that the vaccines are not going to work or they should delay in getting a vaccine. Exactly the opposite, you should get a vaccine as quickly as possible because that is going to push the virus into a smaller evolutionary space where it does not have room to innovate anything any more. The more the virus can run free, the more it can, it is almost like a little entrepreneur, start new business plans or experiment how to get past neutralising antibodies.
5. “Infection is not the same thing as disease”
Dr Jeremy Kamil: [Don’t] lose sight…that just because the virus can infect someone a little a bit and get past the neutralising antibodies does not mean that vaccines are failing. Infection is not the same thing as disease.
6. “The B.1.617 variant of basically the same virus as December 2019 except with a fake moustache and sunglasses. Do not freak out.”
Govindraj Ethiraj: On the B.1.617 variant which we are currently dealing with, would you say that it is the most fearsome or dangerous version of the virus that you have seen or have there been other mutations in the last six months?
Dr Jeremy Kamil: When the virus spilled into us from a bat or an animal species, it creates its own family tree and you are seeing the same types of mutations occurring on lots of different branches of that virus family tree. I do not think that B.617 is likely to prove the scariest variant yet. It is probably a mid-way puncher, probably an interesting variant from a scientific perspective. But as far as the general public, it is COVID-19. Do not freak out, calm down, get the vaccine and yes, realise that this virus can affect you and realise that this virus is always going to be changing little by little. It cannot completely change everything about itself and outsmart all our vaccines and immune systems. It is basically the same virus from December 2019 from Wuhan China, maybe with a fake moustache on and sunglasses and a wig. But it cannot outsmart your immune system. Your immune system is fantastic. So have faith in your body's ability to fight viruses, especially if you have had training from a vaccine.
7. What about COVISHIELD and COVAXIN?
Dr Jeremy Kamil referred to the generic name of COVISHIELD, which is the Oxford Astra Zeneca vaccine: “AstraZeneca vaccines are/seem to be very very effective from protecting people from becoming dangerously ill…But any of the adenovirus vectored vaccines or the mRNA vaccines are going to protect you fantastically well on an individual basis from any risk of becoming seriously ill. I am not going to say that it is absolute. There is always going to be an expectation of the rule. But on an individual basis, if you get the AstraZeneca vaccine for instance, you have excellent protection against the risk of being seriously ill.”
Dr Kamil did not comment on COVAXIN, but spoke about other inactivated vaccines such as the Chinese ones: “I have heard that even China has come out and said that their inactivated vaccine, there are a bunch of different vaccine candidates in China...I am sure that some of them are good but their inactivated vaccines, they have been disappointed with their own results and they have come out and said that. So, I do not want to make claims about inactivated vaccines.”
We hope the interview was useful, and if there are other questions that remain unanswered, reply back or leave comments here. I will find reliable sources and leave links.
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