The Pesky ‘South Africa’ COVID-19 Variant

Three different trials in South Africa of the vaccines by Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Novavax all have shown a decreased efficacy against the variant of the coronavirus there. Recently Pfizer’s lab tests did fairly well, but they were not testing against the virus on site, but against a virus that they engineered with similar mutations to be akin to the actual South African variant. Of note, typical vaccines require about six months to be adjusted to deal with a new variant, but mRNA vaccines (of Pfizer and Moderna) should be capable of cutting that time to around six weeks.