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However, we still do not have a good idea on whether these variants can escape T cell responses,” says Emory virologist Mehul Suthar, PhD, senior author on the NEJM report and assistant professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and Emory Vaccine Center. “These findings provide some reassurance that these vaccines do generate a broad antibody response that can block emerging variants, like the Delta and Kappa variants. Also, antibodies are not the only source of vaccine- or infection-induced protection against SARS-CoV-2 T cells provide some antiviral activity. However, the “correlates of protection,” or the levels of antibodies necessary to fight off the coronavirus, have not been formally established for the mRNA vaccines. The results are generally reassuring for people who had COVID-19 early in the pandemic, or have been vaccinated already. The results for the Kappa variant results in the NEJM paper were first posted as a preprint. Jude and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. The results, based on laboratory assays with live SARS-CoV-2 virus, come from a collaboration between scientists at Emory, Stanford, St. Still, researchers concluded that the antibodies induced by mRNA vaccines will be strong enough in many people and protective immunity is “most likely retained” against Delta and Kappa. The Kappa variant, previously B.1.617.1, was also first identified in India.Ĭompared with the Washington strain that arrived in the United States last year, vaccine-induced antibodies are 2.9 times less able to neutralize Delta and 6.8 fold less able to neutralize Kappa. The Delta variant, first identified in India and previously known as B.1.617.2, is now dominant in the United States. Delta is currently a Variant of Concern and Kappa a Variant of Interest, according to the World Health Organization.Īntibodies induced by currently available mRNA vaccines can still neutralize the Delta and Kappa variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but do so at a reduced potency, according to a report published in the New England Journal of Medicine. If you’re confused by the swarm of SARS-CoV-2 variants and the changing nomenclature, you’re not alone.
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