U.K. Covid Strain Gets Mutation That Raises Vaccine Concern

The U.K. coronavirus strain that’s sparked concern around the globe has picked up another mutation that appears to make the virus more resistant to vaccines.

Scientists have identified the mutation on 11 different sequences of the new strain, Public Health England said in an updated report Monday. The findings came from a data set of more than 200,000 sequences.

The mutation is present in the variants that arose in South Africa and Brazil, and is thought to help the virus resist vaccines and antibody therapies -- and infect people who already fought off Covid.

The change is “a worrying development,” Julian Tang, a professor and clinical virologist at the University of Leicester, said in remarks on the U.K.’s Science Media Centre. The “reassurances from recent studies showing that the mRNA vaccines will still offer optimum protection against the original U.K. variant may no longer apply.”







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