June 2021: Stern: On SARS-CoV-2 variants in vaccinated individuals
A study, published in Nature Medicine, was led by Edmond J. Safra PhD student fellows Talia Kustin, Noam Harel and Sheri Harari (Stern lab, Life Sciences).
SARS-Coronavirus-2 variants have been causing some alarm recently, mainly due to concerns that they might evade vaccine protection - a phenomenon known as "vaccine breakthrough". In collaborative research of Prof. Adi Stern, Edmond J. Safra member (Life Sciences) with Clalit Health Services, massive viral genetic sequencing was performed to rigorously answer this question for the first time.
The study, published in Nature Medicine, was led by Edmond J. Safra PhD student fellows Talia Kustin, Noam Harel and Sheri Harari (Stern lab, Life Sciences). The results showed that in certain time windows post-vaccination, there is indeed reduced effectiveness of the vaccine against viral variants, yet two weeks after receiving two doses, vaccine breakthrough by variants disappeared, stressing the effectiveness of two-dose vaccination in containing viral spread.
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