The strain was recently made known, and scientists say it was circulating in Manaus in December. This strain shares several mutations with a variant initially detected in South Africa -- which was said to "escape" neutralization power from antibodies in convalescent plasma treatment. A team of researchers tested convalescent plasma from coronavirus patients against the 501Y.V2 strain, and 48% of 44 samples "had no detectable neutralization activity," study authors wrote. The paper upheld the risk of reinfection as well, writing: "These data highlight the prospect of reinfection with antigenically distinct variants and may foreshadow reduced efficacy of current spike-based vaccines." "We know that you can get reinfected even with the same version of the virus," Ravi Gupta, virologist at the University of Cambridge, told NPR, though it is too early to say how often the reinfections may occur.