Mutations no bearing on vaccine development – WHO

MANILA, Philippines — While the new coronavirus that causes the deadly COVID-19 has indeed mutated since it was reported in 2019, none have so far been found to have any impact on the various vaccines being developed across the world, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“So far, there’s no evidence that any of the mutations that have been seen would have any impact on the immune response that a vaccine would elicit. So far, so good,” WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said at a recent briefing.

Mutations, she said, were to be expected with SARS-CoV-2 as was the case with all viruses, but the WHO was constantly tracking the mutations to see if it would have any effect on the over a hundred of vaccines under development.

It’s also “good news” that based on what they have observed, the SARS-CoV-2 virus “seems to be not mutating at the speed by which influenza or flu mutates,” she said.

Keep realistic expectations

In August, Takeshi Kasai, WHO Western Pacific regional director, said SARS-CoV-2 remained “relatively stable” despite the detection of a mutation called D614G, that appeared to have caused the virus to be spread faster but doesn’t necessarily mean it was deadlier.

Apart from the D614G mutation, a mink-associated variant strain of the virus was also reported early this month.

The WHO noted, though, that “available evidence has so far not indicated any changes in the virus affecting virus transmissibility, or disease severity associated with this new variant strain.”

Though a number of drug makers have started to announce initial results on their candidate vaccines, the WHO asked for everyone to keep their expectations realistic as it stressed that it would still take time before life could go back to prepandemic days.

“It’s going to take time to scale up production, to get them out to all countries and to get enough people vaccinated so life goes back to pre-COVID-19 days,” Swaminathan said.

“There’s no vaccine that is being developed right now that’s going to have enough doses to serve the entire world,” said Katherine O’Brien, WHO’s director for immunization, vaccines and biologicals.

“What we’re really aiming for is that in 2021, every country around the world is able to immunize at least 20 percent of their population,” she added.

Before then, Swaminathan said people should continue to wear masks, frequently wash their hands, and observe respiratory etiquette and physical distancing.

On Saturday, the Department of Health logged 1,650 new infections, pushing the national caseload to 406,337.

Laguna had the most number of new cases with 84, followed by Davao City (81), Cavite (73), Quezon (71) and Rizal (64).

An additional 194 patients recovered from COVID-19, bringing the total number of survivors to 363,068. The death toll rose to 7,791 as 39 patients succumbed to the severe respiratory disease.