“To get out of this pandemic, we need to stay ahead of this virus, as opposed to playing catch-up,” said Katherine Nabel, a fifth-year student in the Harvard/MIT M.D.-Ph.D. The findings also highlight the importance of ongoing research into the potential future evolution of not only SARS-CoV-2 but other pathogens as well, the researchers said. That means that public health efforts to prevent the spread of the virus, including mass vaccinations worldwide as soon as possible, are crucial both to prevent illness and to reduce opportunities for the virus to evolve, Abraham said. The longer the virus continues to replicate in humans, Abraham noted, the more likely it is that it will continue to evolve novel mutations that develop new ways to spread in the face of existing natural immunity, vaccines, and treatments. Katherine Nabel, co-lead author on the study The researchers did not study viral defense against antibodies developed in response to non-mRNA vaccines. “Our findings suggest that great caution is advised with Omicron because these mutations have proven quite capable of evading monoclonal antibodies used to treat newly infected patients and antibodies derived from mRNA vaccines,” said study senior author Jonathan Abraham, assistant professor of microbiology in the Blavatnik Institute at HMS and an infectious disease specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Nonetheless, the researchers said, the study gives important clues about particular areas of concern with Omicron, and also serves as a primer on other mutations that might appear in future variants. The researchers caution that the study findings are not directly applicable to Omicron because how this specific variant behaves will depend on the interplay among its own unique set of mutations - at least 30 in the viral spike protein - and on how it competes against other active strains circulating in populations around the world. Omicron has been identified in 25 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and North and South America. Indeed, as the research was nearing publication, a new variant of concern, Omicron, entered the scene and was subsequently found to contain several of the antibody-evading mutations the researchers predicted in the newly published paper. The results, published Thursday in Science as an accelerated publication for immediate release, will help researchers gauge how SARS-CoV-2 might evolve as it continues to adapt to its human hosts and, in doing so, help public health officials and scientists prepare for likely future mutations. In an effort to predict future evolutionary maneuvers of SARS-CoV-2, a research team led by investigators at Harvard Medical School has identified several likely mutations that would allow the virus to evade immune defenses, including natural immunity acquired through infection or from vaccination, as well as antibody-based treatments.

New findings about covid vaccine