- Oxford’s Sir John Bell said African strain is more concerning than the Kent one
- Vaccines believed to be effective against infectious UK variant VUI-202012/01
- But South African variant has substantial changes in the structure of the protein’
Coronavirus vaccines could be ineffective against the highly-infectious South African mutation, a scientist who helped develop the Oxford jab has warned. Sir John Bell, regius professor of medicine at Oxford University, said the African strain is more concerning than the Kent one. Vaccines are believed to be effective against the highly-infectious UK variant VUI-202012/01 currently causing a massive spike in cases across the country. But he said the South African variant 501.V2 – detected in two locations in Britain – has ‘really pretty substantial changes in the structure of the protein’ meaning vaccines could fail to work. The Covid vaccine protects against the disease by teaching the immune system how to fight off the pathogen. It creates antibodies – disease-fighting proteins made and stored to fight off invaders in the future by latching onto their spike proteins. But if they are unable to recognise proteins because they have mutated, it means the body may struggle to attack a virus the second time and lead to a second infection.
Sir John told Times Radio: ‘The mutations associated with the South African form are really pretty substantial changes in the structure of the protein.
‘My gut feeling is the vaccine will be still effective against the Kent strain ‘I don’t know about the South African strain – there’s a big question mark about that.’ Britain first sounded the alarm about the variant VUI-202012/01 in December after an explosion of cases were linked to the strain. Top virologists in the US since admitted the strain – which was first seen in a patient in September – could have emerged there and went undetected because America’s genomics scheme is ‘sporadic’. Australia, Italy, Iceland, Spain and the Netherlands are among the countries who have since reported cases of the UK variant. Other Covid strains with near-identical genetic make up have also been reported in South Africa – with strain 501.V2 – and Nigeria – who detected strain P681H. South Africa detected 501.V2, which is feared to be more extreme than the UK’s VUI-202012/01. Several countries have banned travellers from South Africa to try and contain the spread of the new strain, including the UK, Germany, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. But the variant has already been detected in two locations in Britain in contacts of people who had recently visited the African nation. On Christmas Eve, another new variant called P681H was detected in Nigeria. Scientists say it is different to the other two but they do not currently believe the Nigerian strain is more infectious than previous strains. Concerns about vaccine ineffectiveness comes ahead of a major rollout of the Oxford coronavirus vaccine on Monday.