UK: Scientists raise concerns over vaccine efficacy on South African Covid variant

Leing scientists at Oxford have recently raised concerns stating that coronavirus vaccines might t work on new strain detected across South Africa as geme shared only one mutation called 501Y with heavily altered UK's B117 strain.

However, variant's different 'receptor binding domain' might attack weak immune systems in patients with co-morbidity and cause severe infection, creating complications for vaccine’s immunization mechanism to work, ITV’s Science Editor Tom Clarke said, citing Oxford scientist Sir John Bell. 

South Africa’s variant has “several or potentially important mutations” that are completely different found in UK strain and has evolved as a very dominant strain, rapidly surging cases across Eastern and Western Cape in South Africa, he warned.

In an interview with BBC, British Health Secretary Matt Hancock called South African strain ‘“incredibly worrying” as he said that mutated geme is “even more of a problem” than UK variant, including  one that spre across Kent ahe of Christmas.

“This is a very, very significant problem,” Hancock said in a live aired program on BBC rio. When asked about uncertainty about vaccine’s effectiveness against South Africa’s ‘very mutated’ strain, Oxford University's Regius Professor of Medicine, Sir John Bell, told Times Rio that vaccines were being “upgred” to work against  South Africa Covid variant and might take up to four to six weeks. 

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definitive answer 

South Africa strain of Covid is "more worrying”, Bell said, ding that scientists were still unsure about wher or t current vaccines will provide 100 percent protection against strain. It is more concerning than Kent strain "by some margin”, he told Times Rio, ding that South African strain 501.V2 that h spre across UK was, in fact, "at very low levels” to what geme has mutated into. re’s definitive answer if Pfizer with highest efficacy will work on South African variant, he said, clarifying that strain isn’t more dangerous but more complicated and transmissible, with infections more than treble in three weeks. 

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