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son, and tracking of evolving SARS-CoV-2 variants that can inform public health efforts to control the pandemic (Galloway 2020). Vaccine producers are already at work. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are modifying their vaccine for emerging variant booster candidates. They will test an additional (third) vaccine booster dose to study if neutralizing titers against emerging variants can be increased. All companies have started talks with regulators to know what types of clinical trials and safety reviews would be required to authorize new versions of already approved vaccines. Over time, it is possible that, as with seasonal influenza, these adaptive changes in antigenic regions of the virus would give rise to continual reformulation of existing vaccines (Kistler 2020). We expected 2021 to the year of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. We didn’t expect it to be the year of a race between the virus and SARS-CoV-2 vaccines. Vaccines – and science – will ultimately prevail, but for the coming months, the race will stay close. When the COVID waters calm down in a year or so, we should not stop thinking about infectious diseases. Dennis Burton and Eric Topol warn that the next pathogen to emerge might be less accommodating (Burton 2021). Find out how to proceed in 2022: Burton DR, Topol EJ. Variant-proof vaccines — invest now for the next pandemic. Nature 2021, published 8 February. Full-text: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00340-4
References Althaus C, et al. Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 variants in Switzerland. Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM), University of Bern 2021, reported 12 February. Full-text: https://ispmbern.github.io/covid-19/variants/ Andreano E, Piccini G, Licastro D, et al. SARS-CoV-2 escape in vitro from a highly neutralizing COVID-19 convalescent plasma. bioRxiv. 2020 Dec 28:2020.12.28.424451. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/33398278. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.28.424451 Aran D. Estimating real-world COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in Israel. GitHub 2021, posted 4 February. Full-text: https://github.com/dviraran/covid_analyses/blob/master/Aran_letter.pdf Avanzato VA, Matson MJ, Seifert SN, et al. Case Study: Prolonged Infectious SARS-CoV-2 Shedding from an Asymptomatic Immunocompromised Individual with Cancer. Cell. 2020 Dec 23;183(7):1901-1912.e9. PubMed: https://pubmed.gov/33248470. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2020.10.049 Bal A, Destras G, Gaymard A, et al. Two-step strategy for the identification of SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern 202012/01 and other variants with spike deletion H69-V70, France, August to December 2020. bioRxiv 2021, posted 11 January. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.11.10.20228528 Banach BB, Cerutti G, Fahad AS, et al. Paired heavy and light chain signatures contribute to potent SARS-CoV-2 neutralization in public antibody responses. bioRxiv, 2020.2012.2031.424987 (2021). Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.31.424987 Baric RS. Emergence of a Highly Fit SARS-CoV-2 Variant. NEJM December 16, 2020. Full-text: https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMcibr2032888
COVID Reference ENG 006.9
