Back

SARS-CoV-2 infection of BNT162b2(mRNA)-vaccinated individuals is not restricted to variants of concern or high-risk exposure environments

Rife Magalis, B.; Mavian, C.; Tagliamonte, M.; Rich, S.; Cash, M.; Riva, A.; Loeb, J. C.; Norris, M.; Moraga, D.; Zhang, Y.; Shapiro, J.; Starostik, P.; Marini, S.; Myers, P.; Ostrov, D. A.; Lednicky, J. A.; Morris, J. G.; Lauzardo, M.; Salemi, M.

2021-05-21 infectious diseases
10.1101/2021.05.19.21257237 medRxiv
Show abstract

The emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern (VOC) has raised questions regarding the extent of protection of currently implemented vaccines. Ten "vaccination breakthrough" infections were identified in Alachua County, Florida, among individuals fully vaccinated with the BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine as a result of social or household transmission. Eight individuals presented mild symptoms in the absence of infection with other common respiratory viruses, confirmed using viral genetic sequencing. SARS-CoV-2 genomes were successfully generated for five of the vaccine breakthroughs and 399 individuals in the surrounding area and were included for reference-based phylogenetic investigation. These five individuals were characterized by infection with both VOCs and low-frequency variants present within the surrounding population. Mutations, in the Spike glycoprotein, were consistent with their respective circulating lineages. However, we detected an additional mutation in Spikes N-terminal domain of a B.1.1.7 strain, present at low-frequency ([~]1%) in the unvaccinated population, potentially affecting proteins stability and functionality. The findings highlight the critical need for continued testing and monitoring of infection among individuals regardless of vaccination status.

Matching journals

The top 6 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

50% of probability mass above

"Similar papers" are the closest papers from that journal in the model's embedding space. They show what the match is built on, but the ranking comes mostly from a classifier over the whole training set, not from these examples alone.