Covid vaccines can take on new coronavirus variants, studies show

The B.1.1.7 variant, first seen in Britain, has spread widely and is now the most common new variant seen in the US. It was also common in Israel when the study was done. The B.1.351 variant, first seen in South Africa, was also circulating in Israel, but had not caused many infections at the time of the study, so the researchers were unable to say how well the vaccine worked against that variant in particular.

With its small population, Israel was able to quickly vaccinate much of its population.

The study found the Pfizer vaccine provided 95.3% protection against infection and 96.7% protection against death seven days after the second dose.

“By 14 days after vaccination, protections conferred by a second dose increased to 96.5% protection against infection, 98% against hospitalization, and 98.1% against death,” the team wrote.

But people who got only one dose of the vaccine were far less protected. One dose alone gave just 57.7% protection against infection, 75.7% against hospitalization, and 77% against death.

“Topping up your immunity with the vaccine boost will be even more important with the emergence of new variants that might have acquired genetic changes that make them more resistant to the immunity generated by vaccines or following natural infection,” said Jonathan Ball, a professor of molecular virology at Britain’s University of Nottingham, who was not involved in the research.

Separately, a team in the Gulf state of Qatar looked at the efficacy of Pfizer’s vaccine in the population there when B.1.351 and B.1.1.7 were both circulating.

They found reassuring results.

Many of the new variants seen around the world have developed mutations that help them at least partly evade the human immune system, including the immune response elicited by vaccines. Health officials are worried the virus could change even more into forms that more strongly resist the effects of vaccines — much as influenza does most years.

So manufacturers are already making and testing formulations against the most worrying of the variants. The design of the new mRNA vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer make this easier than it would have been in the past. The genetic material used as the basis of the vaccines is made in a lab and the sequence is easily tweaked.

Vaccine maker Moderna reported Wednesday that a booster shot delivering a half-dose of its current vaccine revs up the immune response against both B.1.351 and P.1.

Moderna tested booster doses of either its current vaccine or a version designed specifically against B.1.351 in a Phase 2 trial of 40 people who had already been vaccinated six to eight months before. Blood tests showed half these volunteers had a low antibody response against B.1.351 and the P.1 variant before they got the booster shot.

Two weeks after the booster, their antibody levels had grown against the so-called wild type coronavirus — the variant most common around the world — as well as B.1.351 and P.1, Moderna said in the statement.

“The majority of adverse events were mild or moderate in severity,” the company said.

“We are encouraged by these new data, which reinforce our confidence that our booster strategy should be protective against these newly detected variants. The strong and rapid boost in titers to levels above primary vaccination also clearly demonstrates the ability of mRNA-1273 to induce immune memory,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the statement.

The company is also testing a vaccine booster that combines the original formulation with the B.1.351 specific formula.

“We will continue to make as many updates to our COVID-19 vaccine as necessary to control the pandemic,” Bancel said.

The company has submitted the data, collected as part of a Phase 2 trial, to a pre-print site and said it would submit for publication in a peer-reviewed journal when it gets more data from the trial.

In another study, vaccine maker Novavax confirmed earlier findings that showed its vaccine protects against B.1.351.

The company released updated findings from the trial in March in which it found the vaccine lowered the risk of symptomatic infection by 55% among healthy adults without HIV — which suppresses the immune system. That updated data is not included in Wednesday’s publication.

Novavax has not yet asked the US Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization of its vaccine, which is made using a different formulation than vaccines made by Moderna, Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson.