January 4, 2021, , a box of Sinovac’s coronavirus vaccine (COVID-19) arrives in South Sumatra province, Indonesia.
Scientists are not entirely confident that the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine will work against the variant of the virus found in South Africa, British independent television (ITV) said today, citing a British government scientific adviser who declined to be identified.
British health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier today that he was very concerned about the South African variant of the virus. Public Health England did not answer calls for comment for this story.
Robert Peston, political editor at Independent Television, said, “The reason why Hancock is ‘extremely worried’ about the South African variant, according to the government’s scientific advisers, is that they don’t believe a vaccine would be as effective against it as it is against the British variant. “
In recent months, new variant viruses have been identified in both the UK and South Africa causing a surge in cases of infection.
The South African variant differs from other variants because of multiple mutations in the important “SpikeProtein” that the South African variant uses to infect human cells.
The South African variant also has a higher viral load, which means a higher concentration of viral particles in the patient’s body, which may help the virus spread more rapidly.
Professor of medicine at Oxford University and a member of the government’s vaccine working group, John Bell, said on 3 March that he believes the current vaccine is effective against the British variant of the virus, but there is a “big question mark” over whether the South African variant is effective.
He told Times Radio that if the vaccine does not work against the South African variant, the vaccine could be adjusted, and that would not take a year.
Bell said, “It could take a month or six weeks to get a new vaccine.”
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