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comment by mk
mk  ·  1215 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: More EU nations ban travel from UK, fearing virus variant

Yeah. We'll just have to wait and see.

Even so, if it's a 10% chance that the vaccine doesn't protect against this strain, that's a 10% chance of a global bummer. Global bummers ought to be like 0.01%.

They don't call me depressing preprint guy for nothing. This one hot off the presses from Harvard and University of Pittsburg.

    Since coronaviruses have alower substitution rate than other RNA viruses this gave hope that spike glycoprotein is an antigenically stable vaccine target. However, we describe an evolutionary pattern of recurrent deletions at four antigenic sites in the spike glycoprotein. Deletions abolish binding of a reported neutralizing antibody. Circulating SARS-CoV-2 variants are continually exploring genetic and antigenic space via deletion in individual patients and at global scales. In viruses where substitutions are relatively infrequent, deletions represent a mechanism to drive rapid evolution, potentially promoting antigenic drift.




b_b  ·  1215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

But be careful how you read things. Escaping a mAb treatment isn't the same as escaping a vaccine. Your body doesn't produce mAb's. It produces a mutifactorial response that involves IgM and IgG, probably with Ab's against multiple epitopes for any given antigen. Escaping a lab-made mAb presents a much lower bar than adaptive immunity. Again, you may not be wrong, but there are a lot of reasons not to despair.

mk  ·  1215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Yeah, thanks. I guess part of me is mentally preparing for the worst. I want 2021 to be a post-quarantine post-Trump world too much.

b_b  ·  1215 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Wise, frankly.