Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—new #B117 variant & vaccine data from 🇬🇧 research lab shows mutations in B117’s spike protein yields a ~3.8x reduction in efficacy of vaccine-generated neutralization antibodies compared to wildtype (WT) #SARSCoV2 strain. 10 of 15 people had >3x lower neutralization. 🧵

2) Notably, @GuptaR_lab studied 15 people who had Pfizer mRNA vaccine against pseudo virus bearing Spike protein w/ mutations in B117 variant (del69/70, del 144/145, N501Y, A570D, P681H, T716I, S982A, D1118H). They found a modest reduction in efficacy.

https://twitter.com/guptar_lab/status/1351181780804636675

3) paper pending—among 15 individuals with neutralisation activity 3 weeks after the Pfizer mRNA vaccine (immunity has already kicked in), 10 showed >3-fold reduction in efficacy of antibodies against B.1.1.7 mutant.

➡️The highest was *6x* reduction in neutralization. #COVID19

4) That said, Pfizer previously said their vaccine is still effective against the new variant. But they focused on the 501 mutation, which is just one of many.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1347483791812681729

5) that said, this was a lab experiment against an isolated “pseudo virus” with the mutations seen in the B117 spike protein. It’s not the real thing, and the 3.8x reduction is not the reduction of the vaccine efficacy — just the reduction in the neutralization. Need more data.

6) scratching my head... Pfizer claims they did a similar study & tested 16 different mutations (from B117) and didn’t find any effect. But they didn’t look at “full set of mutations found”—maybe they didn’t test the full combination like @GuptaR_lab did.
news.trust.org/item/202101080…

7) Crap... we also found blood from 48% of people with prior infection acquired immunity did not seem to even recognize the new #b1351 South African variant with the E484K mutation. “Complete escape” was the term for the 48%. And 90% has some reduced immunity.

Crap crap crap.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1351282325926146048

8) A UK 🇬🇧 report that suggests the #B117 variant seems to have a higher relative increase in infection attack rates compared to wild type (common strains) for kids 0-9.

➡️B117 increased across all age groups, but larger % in youngest kids.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1347745261670584321