Filenews 9 July 2021
Not only do they prevent disease and death, but vaccines against Covid-19 may also put a brake on the rapid progression of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, limiting the number of new mutations, and thus its variants (strains) that could potentially escape antibodies.
This is the encouraging conclusion of a new small scientific study, the first of its kind, the findings of which should be confirmed by larger research.
The researchers, who made the relevant pre-publication on medRxiv, according to Reuters, analysed genetic samples of the coronavirus from 30 unvaccinated Covid-19 patients and another 23 vaccinated who were nonetheless infected (which, while rare, may occur). The study focused on the search for genes associated with mutations in the spike protein with which the virus penetrates human cells and which is the main target of vaccines and produced antibodies after vaccination.
The more frequently and extensively this protein mutates, the less effective vaccine antibodies become. It was found that, compared to the unvaccinated, those infected with the coronavirus showed significantly fewer mutations in the spike protein.
The social benefit of vaccination
According to the researchers, "the study presents the first known evidence that Covid-19 vaccines fundamentally limit the evolutionary and antigenic escape routes of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The social benefit of mass vaccination is therefore much greater than reducing the risk of coronavirus infection and transmission in the community, as it also includes limiting the unbridled progression of the virus."
The more people who become infected, mainly because they have not been vaccinated, the more opportunities the coronavirus has to mutate, to multiply more easily within the body due to less immune resistance it encounters, and to transmit it more easily from person to person due to the greater virus load of those who are not vaccinated.
