Third dose may be required for new variants

[Amity Island]

A third dose of coronavirus vaccine may be needed to prevent serious cases of new variants of the disease.

Third shot may be needed to combat new coronavirus variants, Bill Gates says

There's growing concern about the effectiveness of current vaccines against variants from Brazil and South Africa.

www.cbsnews.com

 

[Robin]

This is what Jonathan Van Tam was saying in one of the Covid briefings last week.

 

[Robin]

I think they would be venturing into the unknown with a 3rd dose. We still haven't ascertained the long term safety of the new vaccines without adding things that have never been tested or trialled.

Sometimes you have to venture into the unknown. One assumes there would be trials of a new vaccine before it is rolled out. And as the whole country will have been vaccinated by the time they’ve tweaked it to deal with new variants, any volunteers from the trial are likely to have been vaccinated already. There’s really no point in having a vaccine at all if we’re going to say, ooh, better not tweak it and give it as a booster. Because then we’d end up back at square one without a defence at all, like we were last March.
I don’t know how old you are, and you may be coming from the point of view of someone who feels they are at little risk of Covid. But when you are my age, and your friends and family are of the age to be at greater risk, you are more likely to see a vaccine as a lifeline, I think.

 

[Drummer]

The virus is mutating rapidly so the third dose is - hopefully - adding in all, or most, of the vulnerabilities of the new variants.
The new variants have changes to their knobbly bits so the places the present vaccines grab on do not give them a good grip.
The new vaccine would add in new places to grab onto, so insuring the virus doesn't escape the antibodies.
Personally dying from the Corona virus is not what I am trying to avoid, it is living after contracting it and being unable to take up my former life.
So many people are now reporting that they recovered from Corona months ago, but they have lost their lives. The crafters who have lost fingers are the saddest. The young former athletes who can't climb stairs or walk around a shop are probably the angriest, but so many are in despair.

 

[Drummer]

Hi Dummer,

My concern now is, we've been in lockdowns for almost a year, with the government pinning all it's hopes on it all being "worthwhile" waiting for the vaccines. What if we end up in the position where the variants come quicker than the vaccines? What happens then? Like the flu, these variants would have been anticipated and planned for (i'd of hoped?).

Have we locked down for very little benefit and huge detriment to the economy, jobs, mental health, kids wellbeing, schooling, families being apart, business closures?

btw love your icon...what is it?

Rupert the Bear.
There is no way to plan for variants - there are many sites on the surface of a virus which change unpredictably and at random, and which are then passed on to all the viral offspring - it they confer an advantage of some kind then that will flourish and go on to infect more people. The vaccine has then to be adapted to deal with the change, like cutting a key to fit a lock without having anything to copy - it can be done, but you have to take the lock apart first.

 

[mikeyB]

Why panic? The fu vaccine is tweaked annually, it’s not brain surgery. Now that we have a safe vaccine, there is no medical reason why an altered Covid vaccine should cause any problem.

It’s clear that getting Covid causes more long term problems than a vaccine could, so be grateful they are looking at new variants with careful study, ready to prevent infection.

And @Amity Island, I presume you happily take the flu vaccine annually. None of those vaccines have had full clinical trials and years of study, even though they are different every year.

 

[Drummer]

The type of vaccine used against Covid is technology people have wanted to get into for a very long time, but could not get the funding - then along came something rather serious, and the money was found to fund the work. We might now look forward to further vaccines to combat viruses which have been nasty for a few people not important enough to attract the same level of investment.

 

[Bruce Stephens]

Now that we have a safe vaccine, there is no medical reason why an altered Covid vaccine should cause any problem.

If I understand correctly there's some concern that one kind (using viral vectors) might be somewhat limited, but I'm not sure what scale they're talking about. The issue is that someone receiving a lot of vaccines using the same viral vector will gradually develop immunity to the vector making the vaccinations less and less effective. (But I don't know what sorts of numbers they think will become a problem.) I haven't heard similar worries about mRNA vaccines.

 

[nonethewiser]

Why panic? The fu vaccine is tweaked annually, it’s not brain surgery. Now that we have a safe vaccine, there is no medical reason why an altered Covid vaccine should cause any problem.

Share same view Mike, is what it is so happy to accept more jabs to keep safe.