Are Covid-19 vaccinations at risk due to new virus strain?

By Gokul Bhagabati New Delhi, Dec 29 : Just when the world breathed a bit easy after countries like the UK and the US starting the process of vaccination against Covid-19, reports of a new strain found in the UK with properties to spread much faster than the dominant strain triggered many questions including whether the new strain has the ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity.
This crucial question comes at a time when India is also expected to approve the use of a Covid-19 vaccine soon.
According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases (NCIRD), the possibility that the new SARS-CoV-2 strain could have the ability to evade vaccine-induced immunity is of great concern.
This is because once a large proportion of the population is vaccinated, “there will be immune pressure that could favour and accelerate emergence of such variants by selecting for ‘escape mutants,’” it said.
“There is no evidence that this is occurring, and most experts believe escape mutants are unlikely to emerge because of the nature of the virus,” NCIRD said in an update last week.
Vaccine makers like Pfizer and AstraZeneca also said that their vaccines against Covid-19 should work against the new strain.