This is what happened after I received my Pfizer Vaccine 2nd Dose for COVID vaccine.
How long will I have protective antibodies?
Will it be effective against the new strains (variants) of SARS-CoV-2 with its new mutations?
Scientists have identified an “escape mutant” that may decrease the efficacy of Covid vaccines. The mutation — called E484K — has been found in a coronavirus variant first spotted in South Africa two months ago, which has since spread to 12 other countries. This variant is being called an “escape mutant” because it’s been shown it might be able to escape some of the antibodies produced by the vaccine. So far, scientists say they highly doubt E484K will render the COVID vaccines useless because the variant won’t escape all the vaccines produced by vaccines. The vaccines trigger multiple antibodies to be produced that attack different antigens of the spike protein.
Vaccine 2nd Dose
Researchers in Seattle and elsewhere have looked at plasma from patients who recovered from Covid to see if their antibodies can fight off E484K and other mutations. What they found is that E484K challenges the ability of some antibodies to neutralize the covid virus. Scientists are also looking at different COVID variants as well.
So I think the big takeaway here is that for some of the variants, it will likely result in some vaccines being somewhat less effective, but its also important to remember that as new variants emerge, so can corresponding covid vaccines because it’s easy to obtain the new variant RNA, and then tweak the vaccine to accommodate the new strain of the virus. Also, Moderna came out today and said that their vaccine results in protective antibodies that last for at least a year.
Can the same be said for Pfizer?
Probably, but this is not definitive at this point.
Doctor Mike Hansen, MD
Internal Medicine | Pulmonary Disease | Critical Care Medicine
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