As the UK launches the second coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccine on Monday, a leading Oxford scientist has said there is a ‘big question mark’ over the effectiveness of vaccines on the South African variant of SARS -CoV- 2. The new Covid-19 strain, named 20C / 501Y.V2, caused a rapid surge in coronavirus cases in South Africa and two cases of the variant were also discovered on 23 December in the United Kingdom.
Sir John Bell, a professor at Oxford who is working with the British government on his vaccination program, told Times Radio that there is no data to suggest that the South African variant is more lethal than its origins in Britain, but he is concerned about the mutations in the former. Bell said a team of researchers is investigating the availability of vaccines that can address the virus variants.
“There is still research to be done, but if you want my gut, I think the vaccine will be effective against the Kent strain, and I do not know about the South African strain. “I think there is a big question mark about it,” the professor said.
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The South African variant was first identified in Nelson Mandela Bay in samples beginning to early October 2020, and the variant was also identified in late December 2020 in Zambia. Bell believes the highly transmissible mutations’ are unlikely to turn off the effect. of vaccines completely. ”
“We have some space, because I think the vaccines work much better than one of us thought it would,” he said. “We do have some room to maneuver. If they work 20% less well due to a mutation, we will still have good vaccinations. ‘
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was ‘incredibly concerned about the South African variant’ of the coronavirus, calling it ‘an even bigger problem’ than the new British strain. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no evidence to suggest that the South African variant has an impact on the severity of the disease or the effectiveness of the vaccine.