South African scientists have said that there is a “reasonable concern” that the South African strain of SARS-CoV-2 may have greater resistance to current vaccines, and underscored the need for global vaccination.
Speaking to the BBC, Prof Shabir Madhi, who has led vaccine trials in South Africa, explained, “It’s a theoretical concern. A reasonable concern… that the South African variant might be more resistant.”
The South African variant has mutated far more than the UK variant, raising the possibility that it may be able to evade the antibodies that typically fight coronavirus.
Prof Helen Rees, a vaccine expert at Wits University, said, “Fortunately, should further modifications of the vaccine be required to address the new variants, some of the vaccine technologies under development could allow this to be done relatively rapidly.”
South African scientists recently pushed back against the notions that the SA variant was more transmissible than the UK one, or that it is more deadly. Explaining the reason for the flight restrictions from South Africa, UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock has stated that he believed it was more infectious than the UK variant, saying “This is a very, very significant problem […] and it’s even more of a problem than the UK new variant.”
The UK variant has a “transmission advantage” of 0.4 to 0.7, leading to reproduction numbers of 1.4 to 1.8.Prof Madhi said laboratory tests would determine whether current vaccines would be effective against this variant in a few weeks.
Source: BBC News
