COVID-19 (Severe Special Infectious Pneumonia, New Coronary Pneumonia, Wuhan Pneumonia) virus continues to mutate, and the mutant strain produces subtypes. The subtype of Omicron starts from BA.1, and now BA.4 / BA.5 is dominant in many regions The virus strain, and how effective the existing vaccines are on the "grandchildren" of the Omicron variant, has also attracted more attention. Two separate studies published in June 2022 offer some clues to the answer to this question.
A report published in the company banner design journal Nature by a Chinese research team and a report published in the journal Science by a British research team examined the causes of repeated infection with COVID-19 from different perspectives. "Broad Spectrum Immunity" A research paper by a Chinese research team published in the journal Nature on June 17 said that the vaccines currently developed for early mutant strains of Omicron have been escaped by the emerging subtypes, so they may not be able to target the emerging Omicron subtypes.
The mutant strain produced immune protection. The research was led by the team of Professor Xie Xiaoliang from Changping Laboratory of Beijing Future Genetic Diagnosis Advanced Innovation Center, Peking University, and participated by Tsinghua University, Nankai University, Academy of Social Sciences, Capital Medical College and other institutions. The study found that people who had been vaccinated by a breakthrough infection with the early Omicron strain BA.1 produced antibodies that neutralized the BA.1 virus as well as the original COVID-19 virus, while subtypes that emerged later, including BA.2.12 .1, BA.4 and BA.5, all have mutations that escape these antibodies.