by Lisa Stiffler  / March 19, 2021

With COVID-19 vaccines still in limited supply and case counts threatening to resurge, there is a debate over the benefits of giving more people their first shot and waiting a longer time to administer the second dose, or whether to stay the course and prioritize getting both doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine into arms as quickly as possible.

At just over one year into the COVID-19 pandemic, evolution of SARS-CoV-2 has generated viral variants that differ in their genetic sequence from the strain first detected in December 2019. Evidence is emerging about how these variants differ in their transmission characteristics, associated clinical symptoms, and vaccine efficacy. This document is a brief summary of published evidence about characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 variants that may impact the public health response, including transmission and response to vaccination.

The recent recognition of new COVID-19 variants, first detected in South Africa (B.1.135, 501Y.V2), Brazil (P1) and the UK (B.1.1.7) – and the variants’ potential to disrupt vaccine effectiveness and protection from prior COVID-19 infection – is an urgent concern that UWARN partners around the globe are collaborating on to understand.

Rising infections and new, highly contagious strains of the coronavirus are pressuring governments to accelerate vaccinations

By Dasl Yoon in Seoul, Rhiannon Hoyle in Sydney and Felicia Schwartz in Tel Aviv, The Wall Street Journal