When the UK launched the second coronavirus vaccine (Covid-19) on Monday, a leading Oxford scientist said there was a “big question mark” surrounding the effectiveness of vaccines in the South African variant of SARS -CoV- 2 The new Covid-19 strain, called 20C / 501Y.V2, caused a rapid increase in coronavirus cases in South Africa and two cases of the variant were also discovered in the United Kingdom on 23 December.
Sir John Bell, an Oxford professor who works with the UK government on his vaccine program, told Times Radio that there is no data to suggest that the South African variant is more deadly than that originated in Britain. However, he was concerned about the mutations in the former. Bell said a team of researchers is studying how vaccines currently available can fight variants of the virus.
“There is still research to be done, but if you want to feel it, I think the vaccine will be effective against the Kent strain and I don’t know about the South African strain. I think there is a big question mark about this ”, said the professor.
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The South African variant was first identified in Nelson Mandela Bay in samples dating from early October 2020, and the variant was also identified in Zambia in late December 2020. Bell opined that highly transmissible mutations are unlikely “Turn off the effect of vaccines entirely. “
“We have a little bit of free space because vaccines work, I think, much better than any of us thought they would work,” he said. “We have some room for maneuver. If they worked 20% less well because of a mutation, we would still have good vaccines ”.
UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he was “extremely concerned about the South African variant” of the coronavirus, calling it “even more problematic” than the new strain in the UK. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no evidence to suggest that the South African variant has any impact on the severity of the disease or the effectiveness of the vaccine.