New variants of COVID-19 in Canada could evade vaccination efforts, warn scientists

#CanadianScientists; Covid19Variant; #evadeVaccinationEfforts; #ImmuneResponse

Canada/Canadian-Media:  There is a growing concern among the Canadian scientists about the new variants of Covid-19 which are spreading in many countries about their ability to infect people more easily as well as their ability  to potentially destroy antibodies created in these patients after being  infected or vaccinated, media reports said.

Covid19 Variant. Image credit: Pixaby

The widespread transmission of the virus also facilitates to mutate again and again.

These variants won't be the last, they warned.

 "The more opportunity we give to the virus to replicate, to make more viruses, the more opportunity there is to see that variant of concern — one that won't be mitigated by our vaccines that we've developed," warned Alyson Kelvin, a virologist at Dalhousie University and the IWK Health Centre in Halifax, CBC News reported.

Besides the use of vaccines, virologist and researcher Angela Rasmussen says countries can strive to control emerging coronavirus variants by increasing surveillance efforts and encouraging the usual public health measures, from mask-wearing to avoiding gatherings

"What concerns me the most is that the epidemiological data that goes along with some of these variants suggests they could very rapidly become very prevalent — effectively out-competing the other variants in a given area — in a short period of time," said Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at Georgetown University's Center for Global Health Science and Security in Washington, D.C., and incoming research scientist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, CBC News reported.

More transmission can lead to more infections, more hospitalizations and more deaths in the short term,  Rasmussen said. 

He also said slowing case growth could save lives as well as cut off channels for the virus to spread and mutate.

"It's also possible that variants may arise that decrease the effectiveness of our immune response to the virus," said Matthew Miller, a member of the Institute for Infectious Disease Research at McMaster University and the McMaster Immunology Research Centre in Hamilton.

"But also, of course — and perhaps more worryingly — the immune responses elicited by the currently approved vaccines," CBC News reported.  ​​