The Delta variant – B.1.617.2, formerly “Indian variant” – is a worry. It spreads a lot faster, and vaccines give less protection, especially AstraZeneca. Both SAGE and IndependentSAGE are saying that it could lead to another peak that could exceed January’s:
THREAD latest on B.1.617.2 variant in England:
B.1.617.2 (1st discovered in India) is now dominant in England. Here is a thread summarising latest PHE report and Sanger local data.
TLDR: it is NOT good news. 1/7
— Prof. Christina Pagel ?? (@chrischirp) May 31, 2021
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.26.445838v1
– Here, we isolated infectious B.1.617.2 from a traveller returning from India. We examined its sensitivity to monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) and to antibodies present in sera from COVID-19 convalescent individuals or vaccine recipients, in comparison to other viral lineages. B.1.617.2 was resistant to neutralization by some anti-NTD and anti-RBD mAbs, including Bamlanivimab, which were impaired in binding to the B.1.617.2 Spike. Sera from convalescent patients collected up to 12 months post symptoms and from Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine recipients were 3 to 6 fold less potent against B.1.617.2, relative to B.1.1.7. Sera from individuals having received one dose of AstraZeneca Vaxzevria barely inhibited B.1.617.2. Thus, B.1.617.2 spread is associated with an escape to antibodies targeting non-RBD and RBD Spike epitopes.