Emerging Vaccine-Breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 Variants

The authors warn that certain SARS‑CoV‑2 variants are increasingly shaped by two evolutionary pressures: mutations that boost viral infectivity, and mutations that help the virus evade vaccine-induced or antibody immunity. They emphasize that in highly vaccinated populations, vaccine-escape co-mutations on the spike RBD region are becoming dominant, which raises a concern that current vaccine formulations may lose effectiveness unless updated.