South African mutation may be resistant to jabs

THE Covid variant circulating in South Africa could be resistant to the vaccine, a leading expert has suggested, but cautioned it could take just six weeks to develop a new jab if needed.

Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford, said his “gut feeling” was that the vaccines already on stream would be effective against the new UK strain first identified in Kent.

But he said: “I don’t know about the South African strain, I think that’s a big question mark.”

South Africans were placed on lockdown last week after Cyril Ramaphosa, their president, said that a new variant – 501.V2 – seemed “more contagious” than the virus from the first wave.

Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, said on Dec 23 that two cases of the South African strain had been identified in the UK. The cases and their contacts were quarantined and the Government placed strict restrictions on travel from South Africa.

Anyone who had been in contact with someone who had been in the country within the last two weeks was told they must quarantine.

Sir John told Times Radio he was more concerned about this strain than the UK one “by some margin”. “The mutations associated with the South

African form are really pretty substantial changes in the structure of the protein,” he said. He added that the strain had mutated in the part of the virus that allows antibodies to stick to it.

He added that although there were no data yet on whether it increases severity, “it’s increased the infectiousness, probably by increasing its ability to bind to the human cells”.

Asked whether the current vaccines will be able to tackle both variants, he said the Oxford University team were assessing this possibility.

Sir John said there was still “room to manoeuvre” in relation to the vaccines as they worked “much better than any of us thought they were going to”.

“I think it’s unlikely that these mutations will turn off the effects of vaccines entirely, I think they’ll still have a residual effect,” he said.

He added it was “perfectly possible” to make new vaccines quickly. “It might take a month, or six weeks to get a new vaccine, so everybody should stay calm. It’s going to be fine,” he added.

“But we’re now in a game of cat and mouse, because these are not the only two variants we’re going to see.”

As of Dec 27, 944,539 people in the UK have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. From today, the first doses of the Oxford-astrazeneca jab will be administered.