Coronavirus variants that have ripped through the UK and South Africa in the past month are being heavily scrutinized in laboratories around the world as scientists try to get a hold on how much of a threat the mutated strains pose. One of the chief concerns is that new variants may be able to evade current vaccines, including the two developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna currently being rolled out in the US.

On Thursday, a Reuters report describiing a new study showed Pfizer’s vaccine can effectively neutralize the variants with a mutation known as N501Y, which arose in variants found in South Africa and the UK variant, known as B.1.1.7, independently. The study is yet to be peer-reviewed but can be found on preprint depository bioRxiv.

“It’s preliminary, but it definitely suggests that the vaccine will also work against these variants”, - said Larisa Labzin, an immunologist at the University of Queensland.

Coronaviruses mutate constantly as they pass from human to human and, for the most part, don’t significantly alter the virus. A handful of mutations, though, including those in the B.1.1.7 strain, appears to allow the virus to spread more quickly. These changes occur in the virus"s spike, a critical protein that allows the virus to enter and hijack human cells.