Should We Worry about the Virus Mutating?
By Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD and Annette Pinder
It’s all over the news. The virus that causes SARS-CoV-2 is mutating and spreading more quickly throughout the United Kingdom (UK). By mid-December 1,108 cases of the mutated virus were identified by the Covid-19 Genomics UK Consortium, primarily in the southeast of England. While there is no evidence of the virus having spread to other parts of Europe, travel has been impacted. An emergency lockdown was instituted in London over Christmas, and Canada, France, and Germany have halted flights and rail links.
Although changes in part of the spike protein may cause the virus to become more infectious and spread more easily between people, there is no evidence of these changes causing a more severe form of the disease. Since SARS-COV-2 is a relatively stable mRNA virus, it mutates much less frequently than other RNA viruses.
Now, as everyone wonders whether variant forms of the virus will impact how well the vaccines work, it is important to note that each of the four vaccines we expect to use target different areas of the spike protein. Each vaccine also triggers a specific immune response. It is unlikely that a single change to the arrangement of the amino acids in the spike protein will affect the vaccines’ efficiency. However, as more mutations occur, we may need to make changes to the vaccine, as is true for the seasonal flu, which mutates yearly, and requires an adjustment. Meanwhile, we will all be watching and monitoring this very closely.
Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD is Vice President of Physician Quality at Kaleida Health, a neurosurgeon at UBNS, and an assistant professor at UB Jacobs School of Medicine and Biological Sciences.
