Boris Johnson says he is “very confident” in the Covid vaccines being used in the UK amid concerns about the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab’s effectiveness against the South Africa variant.
The vaccines were effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness, the PM said.
A small study found the Oxford jab gave “minimal protection” against mild disease from the South Africa variant.
But scientists remain confident it will protect against serious disease.
Some 147 cases of the South Africa variant have been found in the UK.
However, the Oxford vaccine has shown to provide good protection against the ‘Kent’ variant, which remains the dominant strain in the UK.
The prime minister said: “We’re very confident in all the vaccines that we’re using.
“It’s important for people to bear in mind that all of them, we think, are effective in delivering a high degree of protection against serious illness and death, which is the most important thing.”
The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are currently being rolled out in the UK, where more than 12 million people have now had at least one jab.
Mr Johnson said they “remain a massive benefit to our country” and he has “no doubt that vaccines generally are going to offer a way out”.
“Yes we’re doing everything we can to contain new variants but we’re also increasingly confident that science, medicine, is gaining the upper hand over coronavirus and all its variants,” he added.
Prof Anthony Harnden, deputy chair of the UK’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, said it remained “highly likely” the Oxford vaccine would also protect against severe disease caused by the South Africa variant.
According to Prof Peter Openshaw, an immunologist from Imperial College London, mild forms of the illness meant that the virus was only present in the nose and upper airway, whereas “the disease that we are most fearful of is when it gets down deep into the lungs” and potentially affects other organs of the body.
“I think there is very little doubt these vaccines will prevent that sort of spread of the virus outside the confines of the upper respiratory tract,” he told the BBC.
In South Africa, where the variant – known as 501.V2 or B.1.351 – accounts for 90% of new coronavirus cases in the country, the rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been put on hold awaiting further advice.
Early research suggests other vaccines are also likely to offer less protection against the South African variant than against the original virus.
Dr Peter English, a consultant in communicable disease control, said he hoped to see the availability of new vaccines tailored to the South African variant “within months” as the technology was “well-established”.
Source:Fiilafmonline/BBC
