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The Covid pandemic has grown upsignificantly less serious In the United States, approved vaccines have become available for all adults. At the same time, there are concerns thatEmerging covidant variants could potentially stop this progress by reducing the effectiveness of existing vaccines. The officials were worried about a new variant that appeared for the first time in India, B.1.617, that the World Health Organization (WHO) found a "Variant of concern"On May 10, 10. This designation means that it could be more transmissible and can cause a more serious illness than other versions of the virus. Fortunately, a new study found that two current vaccines are effective against the new variant of the 'India.

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A team of American researchers at Emory University, Stanford University and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) sought to find out if some Covid vaccines arealways able to protect Against the new variant of India B.1.617, publishes their early study on the Biorxiv server. After isolated a covers cover of the variant of a COVID patient in March 2021, the researchers examined the antibody reaction neutralizing alternative B.1,617 of 24 people previously infected with COVID and 25 people vaccinated.

They found that this new variant was almost 7 times more resistant to neutralizing antibodies. However, researchers noted that all convalescence sera obtained from people vaccinated with the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine were still able to neutralize variant B.1.617 - which means that the two vaccines were effective in protection against the variant of India.

"This suggests that the protective immunity against mRNA vaccines tested here is probably withdrawn against variant B.1.617.1," said the study. However, researchers have not tested people vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson, which is not a mRNA vaccine.

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Many experts were concerned about this new variant because it may have contributed to producing a second wave of severe Covid infections in India. According toThe New York Times, India reported more than360,000 new cases May 12 and more than 4,200 deaths, which is the highest daily death rate that the country has recorded since the beginning of the pandemic. The variant has also spread at least44 other countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States, CNN reported.

Ravi Gupta, a microbiologist at the University of Cambridge who worked on his own study by looking at the vaccine responses at B.1.617, explained during a NPR episode of May 11 that this new variant hasMore than a dozen mutations. But two of the mutations in particular concerned health officials because they are on a significant part of the virus where the immune system attacks, he explained.

"Individual mutations have reduced susceptibility to neutralization by vaccine antibodies, so it has a kind of loss of vaccine responses," Gupta said. However, he noted that his research found that the two mutations together did not double the quantity of vaccine disorders, which is what many were worried, that would do. "He did not seem to be this addition of one on the other," added Gupta. "I think it's really important because that's what the hypothesis has been caused throughout the panic."

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