28/02/2021
ÉPISODE 22
33 MIN

COVID-19 variants and vaccine efficacy

In Episode 22 of Dr. Dave On Call, we discuss the COVID-19 variants and the effects on vaccine efficacy with Dr. David Montefiori.

Dr. Montefiori is Professor and Director of the Laboratory for AIDS Vaccine Research at Duke University Medical Center. During the COVID19 pandemic, Dr. Montefiori and his colleagues were one of the first scientists to warn about COVID-19 variants.

As COVID-19 cases rise, the virus has more opportunity to mutate. Most mutations will be small and have no evolutionary benefit. However, some mutations will cause COVID-19 to adapt, increase its survival to infect others. There are many geographic mutations (i.e. UK, Brazil, South Africa) occurring in the world that result in COVID-19 adapting to improve its survival. These mutations are causing COVID-19 to be easily spread and effect the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines.

We discuss with Dr. Montefiori how viral variants occur, the status of the COVID-19 variants and how they are affecting the efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines. More importantly, we discuss the future of possible variants and how we can plan accordingly.

COVID-19 variants and vaccine efficacy

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