zlacker

This sounds a plausible explanation, but I see one problem: there’s a big fear that the vaccines don’t work on the more infectious strains (South African, Brazilian, Indian, ...). Vaccines target the spike protein. So surely if the spike protein doesn’t evolve (and isn’t responsible for the increased virality of these strains), then the vaccines should still work against it?

>>tomp+(OP)
Well, so far the vaccines do work against the variants

>>tomp+(OP)
The vaccines do work on variants [0] with different degrees of efficacy. This actually demonstrates that the virus - after infecting millions of people over a year - hasn't significantly changed the spike protein.

Also: major changes in he spike protein could impact the ability of the virus to infect humans, so -- there is that.

[0] https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2104974