As the United Kingdom unveiled its second vaccine against coronavirus disease (Covid-19) on Monday, a leading scientist from Oxford said there was a “major question mark” around the effectiveness of vaccines converted to Africa. South of SARS-CoV- 2. The new Covid-19 strain, named 20C / 501Y.V2, has caused a rapid rise in coronavirus cases in South Africa and two cases of the opposite have been detected in the UK on 23 December.
Sir John Bell, a professor from Oxford who is working with the UK government on his vaccination program, told Times Radio that there is no data to suggest that the South African variety is more deadly than ever. a British native, however, said he was concerned about the changes in the past. Bell said a team of researchers is looking at how the currently available vaccines could deal with the variants of viruses.
“The research is still to be done, but if you want my gut to feel, I think the vaccine will be effective against the Kent strain and I don’t know about the South African strain. I think there’s a big question mark about that, ”said the professor.
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The South African variant was first identified in Nelson Mandela Bay in samples dating back to the beginning of October 2020, and the variant was also identified in Zambia at the end of December 2020. Bell announced the transmissible mutations are unlikely to “completely reverse the immunization effect. ”
“We have some room because the vaccines work, I think, much better than any of us thought they would work,” he said. “We have some room to maneuver. If they worked 20% as well due to mutation we would still have good vaccines. “
UK health secretary Matt Hancock has said he is “deeply concerned about the South African variant” of the coronavirus, saying it is “even more of a problem” than the new UK snort. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is no evidence to suggest that the South African variant has any influence on disease depth or vaccine efficacy.