Emerging Covid-19 Variants and Vaccine Efficacy? An Eye on the Future

Abstract

When COVID-19 outbreak commenced in late 2019 and was fast spreading across the globe, all efforts of the global scientific community was targeted at finding prevent further spread and get a lasting cure. These efforts culminated in the emergence of several drugs and eventually vaccines. The vaccines have substantially slowed down the spread of the disease. While vaccines appear to have started having a firm grip on the disease, the emerging viral variants from the continued mutation of SARS-CoV-2 appear to have started responding differently to the vaccines licensed for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) by the World Health Organization (WHO). It is clear from documented records that AstraZeneca, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer BioNTech, SinoVac, Sputnik, Soberana, Abdala, Novavax, and Cansino have all been effective against Alpha and Beta Kappa and Gamma variants of the virus among other variants and marginally with the Delta variant. Although, cases of breakthrough infection with other variants in fully vaccinated individuals have been rare so far, this is different with the Delta variant that has started showing visible signs of vaccine escape with high levels of breakthrough infections and evidence of severe morbidities and record of mortalities as well. Given that vaccine escape of some strains of Delta variant has already commenced; composition of newer vaccines should using computational modeling target variants of Delta which may even be more resistant and deadly.