Thread by @DrEricDing

So... there is a worrying “reasonable concern… that the South African 🇿🇦 #SARSCoV2 variant might be more resistant” to current vaccines, Prof Shabir Madhi, who led trials for Oxford vaccine in SA. Earlier, UK🇬🇧 govt advisors echoed this concern. #COVID19
bbc.com/news/world-afr…

2) “Prof Madhi said a definitive answer would probably come in a matter of weeks, with extensive testing already under way in South Africa. The concern arises from the fact that the virus here has mutated far more than the variant in the UK...

3) “and one of those mutations might mean it can evade attack by antibodies that would normally fight coronavirus.

Prof Madhi said it was "unlikely" that the mutation in South Africa would make the current vaccines useless, but might "weaken the impact".

4) “As the new variants are already spreading to other countries, the importance of ensuring that vaccines remain effective against new variants is a global imperative," said Prof Rees.

5) “Prof Barry Schoub, who chairs the government's advisory committee on vaccines, said the "preliminary evidence" from tests did not suggest that mutations would allow the virus to "escape" the impact of the current vaccines.
"The vaccines seem to be very effective," he said...

6) “citing laboratory tests that appeared to show the current vaccines still "neutralise this new variant".

Prof Madhi said the crucial laboratory experiments were yet to start and the efficacy of the vaccines would only be known "over the next few weeks".

7) Simon Clarke, an associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said that while both variants had some new features in common, the one found in South Africa “has a number additional mutations ... which are concerning”.

reuters.com/article/us-hea…

8) “He said these included more extensive alterations to a key part of the virus known as the spike protein - which the virus uses to infect human cells - and “may make the virus less susceptible to the immune response triggered by the vaccines”.

9) Lawrence Young, a virologist and professor, also noted that the South African variant has “multiple spike mutations”.
“The accumulation of more spike mutations in the South African variant are more of a concern and could lead to some escape from immune protection,”

10) “Scientists including BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin and John Bell, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, have said they are testing the vaccines against the new variants and say they could make any required tweaks in around six weeks.”

11) Statement of concern by UK health minister.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1346077462657191938

12) My earlier thread last month on the SA variant.

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1340517608643317761