Julia Reich

Mr. Ippolito

AP Biology C Even 

2/11/21

Jesus, Erin Garcia de. “What We Know about Coronavirus Variants' Effect on Reinfection and 

Vaccines.” Science News, 6 Feb. 2021, www.sciencenews.org/article/covid-19-coronavirus-variants-reinfection-vaccination-efforts

For my current event, I read Erin Garcia de Jesus’s article titled “What We Know about Coronavirus Variants’ Effect on Reinfection and Vaccines.” The article begins describing the vaccines we know of: Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson. However, “some mutations can stymie the antibodies’ ability to latch onto the virus and prevent it from infecting cells.” This leads to great vaccines becoming essentially powerless to the new variants, found in Brazil, South Africa, and the United Kingdom. “Curbing transmission is the holy grail of vaccine effectiveness: That would give the coronavirus fewer chances to acquire potentially dangerous mutations,” -- a piece of advice millions of people fail to remember. Garcia de Jesus writes that antibodies only make up one part of the immune system’s arsenal to eliminate viruses from the body, but this alone is not enough. Social distancing and masks are the best solution to curb spreading, or else, people who have already recovered from the virus are at risk of getting infected again. The first confirmed reinfection was in August of 2020. Reinfections are difficult to prove, as a person could remain asymptomatic, however, doctors and scientists are frightened at the new strains of the virus. At the end of Garcia de Jesus’s article, she includes a Q&A with Science News and Aubree Gordon, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan. Gordon answers questions, such as “when will the pandemic end?” Gordon responds with, “ It’s going to be a little bit longer than it would have been without those variants arising. But pandemics always end eventually.”

I chose to read this article as the COVID-19 virus is evidently an important topic and one of great relevance in my day to day life. As new virus variants rise, the timeline for the pandemic continues to push further back. Aubree Gordon believes the coronavirus will become endemic, a commonly circulating virus, like the flu. Erin Garcia de Jesus writes that social distancing and reducing transmission at all costs is what will end the global pandemic sooner. This is relevant to the world as people still continue to do unnecessary traveling and activities. Variants will continue to occur, and more people will die before the vaccine begins to help. 

Erin Garcia de Jesus’s article was very well written, easy to read, and demonstrated a greater understanding of the COVID-19 variants and their effects on humans. I really like how she included an interview with Aubree Gordon, an expert in her field of epidemiology. However, I would recommend including more statistics of the virus deaths, infection rates, and variant infection rates. Numbers help audiences visualize and try to understand exactly how serious a situation may be. Other than that, I thought the article was essentially perfect.