Vaccine developers can't keep up with COVID's mutations
In April, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention both updated their recommendations for COVID vaccines, providing more flexibility for higher-risk individuals who want additional protection from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. The bivalent vaccines may not stand up very well against these new strains, which are evolving so fast that some experts even argue that we should rename the virus SARS-CoV-3 to emphasize its distant genetic drift from the original pathogen. Yet another study, this one published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical Infectious Diseases on April 10, reported data from a randomized clinical trial; ominously, the study authors emphasized an "ongoing concern that the breadth of antibody response from current updated vaccines is not optimal for the pace of virus evolution." In other words, the bivalent vaccines may not stand up very well against these new strains, which are evolving so fast that some experts even argue that we should rename the virus SARS-CoV-3 to emphasize its distant genetic drift from the original pathogen. But while the bivalent vaccines may be unlikely to prevent infection against the currently circulating strains in North America, it's worth repeating that they will still stop severe illness and death.
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