The COVID-19
vaccines currently in use are the best way to protect people against the
coronavirus and they will continue to provide protection for long periods,
potentially for years, three new studies have found. The studies, published on Monday,
also showed evidence that slight tweaks in the vaccines can bolster the immune system
to protect against evolving threats.

According
to a report in the New York Times, one of the studies found that most people
who are inoculated with mRNA vaccines may not need a booster dose, as long as the
virus does not evolve much beyond its current form, although that is not a
given.

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The second
study found that mixing up different vaccines show promising results, while the
third one found that a booster shot of a widely-used vaccine can strengthen
immunity to a great extent – if it is at all needed.

Researchers
had earlier feared that the immunity provided by vaccines may be rendered ineffective
soon, given the virus’ ability to mutate constantly. However, the new studies provide
hope that the means to end the pandemic have already been created, despite the
virus evolving into more dangerous forms, sparking fresh surges in different parts
of the world.

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“It’s nice
to see that the vaccines are recapitulating what we’ve also seen with natural
infection,” Marion Pepper, an immunologist at the University of Washington in Seattle,
said.

“Remember
all that stuff at the beginning where people were panicking over antibodies
vanishing?… it’s hard for me to see how and why we would need boosters of the same
thing every six to nine months,” said Deepta Bhattacharya, an immunologist at
the University of Arizona.

While the
coronavirus is evolving, constantly mutating itself to better dodge the body’s
natural defences, our immunity has also been found to be adapting to the virus.
In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers found that the Pfizer-BioNTech
and Moderna vaccines triggered a persistent immune reaction in the body, which
could provide protection against COVID for years.

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Another study,
conducted by immunologist Ali Ellebedy of Washington university in St. Louis and
his team, found that the immune cells in the body were still organizing – learning
to recognise viral genetic sequences – as many as 15 weeks after the first
vaccination.

The longer those
cells get to ‘understand the virus’, the more likely they are to stop any
potential variants that may emerge later. These findings suggest that most vaccinated
people will stay protected against the coronavirus for a long period of time,
at least against the existing variants.