Oxford jab is effective in tackling new strain
THE Oxford Covid-19 vaccine remains highly effective against the Kent variant, scientists revealed yesterday.
Volunteers in trials had a similar level of protection against both that variant and the original.
The variant is between 30-70 per cent more transmissible than the first virus and up to 30 per cent more deadly.
Professor Andrew Pollard, of Oxford University, said data showed the vaccine “not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, which caused the surge in disease from the end of 2020 across the UK”.
To determine whether their jab, developed with AstraZeneca, was any less effective, researchers sent swabs from people infected during trials for genetic sequencing, to find out which variant of coronavirus they had.
Uncertainty
They found vaccine protection against symptomatic infection was almost the same – estimated at 75 per cent for the Kent variant and 84 per cent for others.
Prof Pollard said uncertainty around the exact numbers meant he could not say for sure whether protection was the same or different.
But he said, “the important issue is that it’s in a very similar ballpark to the previously reported efficacy and they’re very similar to each other”.
This was despite people who caught the Kent variant typically having nine-fold lower levels of antibodies.
The study also found that those who got infected despite being vaccinated had a lower viral load and cleared the virus more quickly, reducing their risk of spreading it.