JOHANNESBURG – A new variant of the coronavirus that is emerging in South Africa may make existing Covid-19 vaccines less effective, but is unlikely to be fully resistant to vaccines, according to the main researchers who studied the mutations and vaccines.
The variant, which has already appeared in patients in Europe and other African countries, quickly became the predominant one in South Africa, exacerbating a second wave of infections that is overwhelming hospitals and taking daily deaths to record levels.
South African researchers are rushing to determine whether this makes patients more seriously ill than other variants of the virus. They are also testing how it responds to antibodies from people who have recovered from Covid-19 and those who have received coronavirus vaccines.
Its official conclusions are eagerly awaited by researchers around the world, as one of the mutations in the variant demonstrated, in previous laboratory experiments, greater resistance to some of the antibodies the body uses to fight Covid-19. UK health secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this week that he was “extremely concerned about the South African variant”.
But the scientists who worked on the antibody experiments and the principal investigators of several vaccine tests conducted in South Africa say – based on their understanding of the virus and the immune response triggered by the injections – immunizations must still work against the new variant. , although perhaps not as effectively.