COVID vaccines ‘might not’ work as well on South African strain, scientists warn

Johannesburg, South Africa – The new coronavirus variant identified in South Africa poses even more risk than strain discovered several weeks ago in EnglandBritain’s top health official warned on Monday. His alarm came as scientists warned that the new strain sweeping South African coastal communities could be resistant to COVID-19 vaccines approved or pending approval in the United States and Europe.

“I am extremely worried about the South African variant,” Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the BBC. “It’s a very, very important problem … it’s even more of a problem than the new British variant.”

The first doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine outside of medical trials administered on Monday in an Oxford hospitalProfessor John Bell, a senior immunologist from Oxford, who helped create the prestigious university’s vaccine, said there was a “big question mark” over whether current versions of the vaccines would work on the South African variant.

He said it was “unlikely” that the mutation would render the vaccines ineffective, but that they might need adjustments to provide as much protection against the strain as against others already widely released elsewhere.

Lead researcher on the Oxford vaccine trial in South Africa, Professor Shabir Madhi, told CBS News on Monday that more than 13 variants of the coronavirus have been identified in the country since the start of the pandemic. He said the new, 501.V2, which has spread like wildfire in coastal towns in South Africa, is the most worrying mutation in the virus to date.

“It is not a fact that the vaccine will not work on this variant, but it must be taken into account that the vaccine may not have the full effectiveness,” he said.

Testing at the right time

Oxford and US pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson have conducted human trials of their vaccines in South Africa, including doses administered since the discovery of the new variant.

“The participants in our trial received the second dose during the time of this new variant, which is extremely lucky,” Madhi said, adding that he expected the relevant trial results by the fourth week of January. .

Glenda Gray, president of the South African Medical Research Council and head of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trial team, confirmed that their trial also included giving participants doses amid the outbreak of new strain.

“It is fortunate that this timeline allows us to see if there is a change with this new variant” in the effectiveness of the vaccine, she said. His team is also expecting results “towards the end of this month”.

“This new variant should not delay access to the vaccine, but it also means that we have to keep an eye out for ruptured infections,” she said, referring to the rate of infections among those who received the vaccine.

Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine requires only one dose, unlike Oxford and Pfizer vaccines approved for use in Britain, or the Moderna formula used in the United States with Pfizer vaccines.

The Oxford vaccine was tested at seven different sites across South Africa in 2,100 volunteers, while some 45,000 people were involved in the Johnson and Johnson trial.

So far, immunologists have expressed little concern about the effectiveness of approved or pending vaccines against other coronavirus mutations, including a variant discovered late last year in the London area that made sharply increase infection rates in the UK.

Government scientists say that, like the South African variant, the new British strain appears to spread more easily between people, but they expect it to respond to vaccines in the same way as the more prevalent versions of disease.

South Africans waiting

Meanwhile, South Africans are still waiting to know when vaccines might become available in their country outside of trials.

The country’s largest union has accused the government of “gross incompetence” with its vaccine deployment plan. A group of prominent scientists, including Glenda Gray, criticized the government in an editorial on Sunday for what they called “astonishing” lack of planning.

Hours after the criticism, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize made an online presentation outlining the government’s plan. He said the goal was to vaccinate two-thirds of South Africa’s 57 million people by the end of the year, starting in February.

“We are targeting a minimum of 67% of the population to achieve collective immunity,” he said.

The South African Department of Health has reported a total of 1.1 million cumulative cases of COVID-19 across the country, with a positivity rate of around 32% and nearly 30,000 confirmed deaths. It is the worst national coronavirus outbreak in Africa.