UK minister says vaccine protection against South African variant raises concerns

LONDON (Reuters) – UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Friday there were concerns about the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus found in South Africa.

“There are concerns about the South African vaccine in particular – about the vaccine’s effectiveness against it – so we just can’t take any chances,” Shapps told Sky.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in new, highly transmissible variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a lab study by the US drug maker.

The not-yet-peer-reviewed study from Pfizer and scientists in the University of Texas medical branch indicated that the vaccine was effective in neutralizing the virus with the so-called N501Y mutation in the spike protein.

The mutation could be responsible for greater transmissibility and there had been fears that it could also cause the virus to escape the antibody neutralization caused by the vaccine, said Phil Dormitzer, one of Pfizer’s top scientists. on viral vaccines.