(TargetLiberty.org) – The new strain of COVID-19 detected in the UK hasn’t been detected in the US yet. However, as it’s already been found in other countries as far apart as Belgium and Australia, it’s only a matter of time before it gets here – if it isn’t spreading, undetected, already. That’s left many Americans asking a worrying question: Does this mean our new vaccines are already useless?
Scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research expect to know in the next few days if there's a concern that the Covid-19 vaccines might not work against a mutated variant of the virus, according to the institute's top vaccine researcher https://t.co/DTEWiraX5r
— CNN International (@cnni) December 21, 2020
There’s been global panic since last Friday, December 18, when British scientists said a new mutation of the novel coronavirus could be 70% more infectious than earlier ones. Most of Europe and several other countries have slapped travel bans on the UK. France even banned freight. The EU has told its members to lift the bans, but the new question concerns what this means for the vaccination program. Has the virus changed enough that the vaccines that started rolling out two weeks ago won’t work anymore?
Now, a team at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research is studying the mutant virus’s genome, which UK scientists have published online. So far, Institute director Dr. Nelson Michael says there’s no reason to think the new variant will be vaccine-resistant. However, he added, “We still have to be diligent.”
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