Variants vs Vaccines: Scientists scramble to find answers as early data shows new variants can beat prior immunity

Professor Tulio de Oliveira who first discovered a mutated version of the coronavirus in South Africa.

Scientists globally are urgently studying vaccine effectiveness against new, more transmissible variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes Covid-19, according to a group of pre-eminent scientists.

But it is unclear whether vaccines already developed will be effective against these variants of the coronavirus that is by some estimates, 50% more transmissible. Some answers are expected later this month.