Bold Therapeutics Inc. While viral mutations are inevitable, the potential for mutations to reduce the effectiveness of vaccines or potentially even render them ineffective is a source of considerable concern, particularly in countries with a vaccination-centric strategy. For example, the E484K mutation, first detected in both the South African (B.1.351) and Brazilian (B.1.1.28) variants – and more recently in the UK variant (B.1.1.7) – is a spike protein mutation that has been shown to be immune-evading, allowing previously infected patients to become reinfected and potentially allowing vaccinated patients to become infected. In just the past few weeks, a new 'Eek' variant of concern (with both E484K and N501Y mutations) has emerged in Japan