[ 2021-02-08 ]

South Africa halts AstraZeneca jab over new strain
South Africa has put its roll-out of the
Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on hold after a study
showed "disappointing" results against its new
Covid variant.

Scientists say the strain accounts for 90% of new
Covid cases in South Africa.

The study, involving around 2,000 people, found
the vaccine offered "minimal protection" against
mild and moderate cases of Covid-19.

South Africa has received 1m doses of the
AstraZeneca jab and was due to start vaccinating
people next week.

Oxford jab offers less S Africa Covid
protection
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Speaking at an online news conference on Sunday,
South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said
his government would wait for further advice on
how best to proceed with the Oxford-AstraZeneca
vaccine in light of the findings. The trial was
carried out by the University of the Witwatersrand
but has not yet been peer reviewed.

In the meantime, he said, the government will
offer vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson and
Pfizer in the coming weeks.

"Unfortunately, the AstraZeneca vaccine does not
work against mild and moderate illness," Prof
Shabir Madhi, who led the study, told the
briefing.

He said that the study had not been able to
investigate the vaccine's efficacy in preventing
more serious infections, as participants had an
average age of 31 and so did not represent the
demographic most at risk of severe symptoms from
the virus.

Prof Sarah Gilbert, Oxford's lead vaccine
developer, said vaccines should still protect
against severe disease.

She said developers were likely to have a modified
version of the injection against the South Africa
variant, also known as 501.V2 or B.1.351, later
this year.

Experts say vaccines could be redesigned and
tweaked to be a better match for new variants in a
matter of weeks or months if necessary.

Early results from Moderna suggest its vaccine is
still effective against the South Africa variant,
while AstraZeneca has said said its vaccine
provides good protection against the UK variant
first identified in the UK.

Early results suggest the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
protects against the new variants.

Source - BBC

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