Questions over vaccine
PROBLEM: NEW VARIANT OF COVID-19 LIKELY TO OVERTAKE FIRST VERSION
AstraZeneca’s diminished efficacy not all ‘doom and gloom’.
As the new Covid-19 variant tightens its grip on South Africa, which is at the bottom of the queue for other vaccine versions, revelations the highly-vaunted AstraZeneca vaccine has failed to stop mild to moderate cases caused by the local variant is raising concerns.
Professor Shabir Madhi said during a webinar last night on a small, very specific sample of people, that the vaccine showed a “significantly reduced efficacy against the variant, according to the randomised, double-blind study” it was set out to do, when the antibodies are not working in the laboratory.
“We have not proven that this protects against the new variant.
“The new variant explains why the resurgence far exceeded the first wave both in terms of number of cases and people died,” he said.
While Professor Salim Abdool Karim noted last night the second wave was nearing its end, other experts were worried about the lack of data on how many people have the variant, that that the new variant was likely to overtake the first version of the virus as well as delays in vaccine acquisition.
“I doubt whether anybody [knows how many people have the Covid-19 variant], at least not on a countrywide basis.
“Many people were diagnosed on symptoms alone, especially during the time of serious test shortages. Distinguishing between the variants needs lab work and is not done on all cases,” said Stellenbosch University epidemiologist Dr Jo Barnes.
She said due to the variant heightened efficiency at infecting people, this alone will result in more cases.
She added the findings on AstraZeneca’s diminished efficacy on the new variant were not all “doom and gloom”.
“Even if any new vaccine, including this one, provides only 50% protection or even if it only helps to lessen the severity of the disease [keeping you out of hospital or Intensive Care Unit], then that is already an advantage for you personally and for the health system overall,” Barnes said.
She said all the vaccines were reported to be safe and that the only question was to what extent they offered protection and the cost-effectiveness of the vaccine.
“But that only becomes an issue when the country has a choice of vaccines and needs to choose the ‘best’ one, given the vaccine’s performance and logistical requirements.
“At present that is a theoretical issue for SA since we will have to take what we can get.
“The negotiations for a vaccine were left very late, so we are standing at the back of the queue,” Barnes added.
Primary data showed that those responses “may remain intact” against the SA variant, said AstraZeneca.
Public health practitioner Dr Shakira Choonara said she recently attended a civil society meeting on the vaccine roll-out with key government stakeholders and asked the question about the variant and whether we should be concerned.
“The response was that the vaccine will be effective and we should not be concerned about the variant,” said Choonra.
“I am quite concerned about how key stakeholders failed to procure the vaccine and then, in planning vaccine roll-out, didn’t paying attention to the variant or state that we don’t have to worry about vaccine effectiveness against the variant. That is pure negligence,” she said.
Madhi said there were also two or three vaccines whose clinical trials would be completed in the next three months, which will be more effective against the new variants.
Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize warned last week South Africa could face a possible third wave of Covid-19 which may be more devastating than the first and second waves.
Negotiations for a vaccine were left very late