With the announcement by Iowa health officials of the new strains of COVID-19 being detected in Iowa, can the current vaccines protect against it? 

Dallas County Health Department Public Information Officer Ann Cochran says the research behind this question is being closely monitored but more studies will continue to come to a final result.

“So far the studies on the new strains from other parts of the globe suggest that the antibodies that our bodies generate when we get the vaccination will recognize the new viruses, too.”

Cochran says this is why it’s important for people to become vaccinated as someone who isn’t could potentially infect someone else with the new strain who may already be vaccinated, if the virus has mutated.