How can Covid vaccines be tweaked to tackle new variants?

Drugmakers are looking at ways to improve their vaccines so they are ready for mutations of the virus

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Emerging variants of the virus that causes Covid-19 have triggered concerns that the vaccines developed to date will not provide the high level of protection seen in clinical trials. Concerning variants have been identified in California, South Africa, Brazil and the UK.

But not every variant needs a new vaccine, since vaccines produce a broad immune response that will probably cover many mutations. Here’s what needs to be done to assess whether a vaccine needs to be tweaked, and how to tweak it.

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