Experts say COVID-19 mutations are normal

The release from Johns Hopkins Medicine suggests new strains of COVID-19 are to be expected. In the article, Dr. Robert Bollinger, of the Raj and Kamla Gupta Center for Clinical Global Health and Education, who is a professor of infectious diseases and a COVID-19 expert, said vaccines however, should still work against the new strains.

The CDC also suggested that, due to the nature of the virus, it is not likely for it to evolve to evade vaccine-induced immunity. “There’s not a lot of data at this point, but the experts are looking at it and saying that, based on the mutations that happen and the way the vaccines that are currently available are designed, they anticipate that these vaccines … are going to be effective with the new strain,” Horton said.

In the Johns Hopkins Medicine release, Bollinger said, in regards to the new virus strain, “we don’t need to overreact.”