What are variants of concern, and are COVID-19 vaccines effective against them?

Jun 4, 2021

The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19 is evolving as it circulates through different parts of the world. Image: Unsplash/Spencer Davis

Johnny Wood

Writer, Forum Agenda

Our Impact

The Big Picture

Explore and monitor how COVID-19 is affecting economies, industries and global issues

A hand holding a looking glass by a lake

Crowdsource Innovation

Get involved with our crowdsourced digital platform to deliver impact at scale

Stay up to date:

COVID-19

Listen to the article

Have you read?

Vaccines can prevent you from COVID-19 variants of concern

The Seychelles has the highest number of population fully vaccinated compared to the world average. Image: Johns Hopkins University & Medicine

Discover

What is the World Economic Forum doing to manage emerging risks from COVID-19?

Don't miss any update on this topic

Create a free account and access your personalized content collection with our latest publications and analyses.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Public License, and in accordance with our Terms of Use.

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

The Agenda Weekly

A weekly update of the most important issues driving the global agenda

Subscribe today

You can unsubscribe at any time using the link in our emails. For more details, review our privacy policy.

More on COVID-19
See all

Here’s what to know about the new COVID-19 Pirola variant

Lora du Moulin and Charlotte Edmond

October 11, 2023

How the cost of living crisis affects young people around the world

Douglas Broom

August 8, 2023

From smallpox to COVID: the medical inventions that have seen off infectious diseases over the past century

Andrea Willige

May 11, 2023

COVID-19 is no longer a global health emergency. Here's what it means

Simon Nicholas Williams

May 9, 2023

New research shows the significant health harms of the pandemic

Philip Clarke, Jack Pollard and Mara Violato

April 17, 2023

Candida auris: What you need to know about the deadly fungus spreading through US hospitals

Rebecca A. Drummond

April 11, 2023