Covid vaccines: what are the implications of new variants of virus? - The Guardian

Further changes in variants that emerged in South Africa and Brazil may help the virus resist antibodies induced by vaccines and Covid infections from the first wave.

If scientists spot new variants of coronavirus that are resistant to current vaccines then the vaccines will need to be redesigned to make them effective again.

Updating the vaccine is not hard, at least conceptually: scientists simply replace the genetic code for the old spike protein with the code for the spike protein from the new variant.

The Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab is an mRNA vaccine.

In the case of an mRNA vaccine, the virus’s mRNA is injected into the muscle, and our own cells then read it and synthesise the viral protein?

Vaccinations programmes for Covid may need to mirror the annual flu vaccine programme, whereby the vaccine is modified each season to maximise its effectiveness

At the moment, the UK regulator believes there is no evidence that current vaccines will not work against the recently discovered new variants of coronavirus, but a strain known as 501Y.V2, which was first identified in South Africa, is causing concern because it is partially resistant to antibodies in people who caught Covid before

If surveillance shows that the variant, or others that emerge, are substantially resistant to current vaccines, then the vaccines will be updated