January 5 According to a BBC report on the 4th, South African medical experts said that existing vaccines such as Pfizer and Oxford may be ineffective after studying the mutant novel coronavirus found in UK.
British medical experts expressed the same concern earlier.
According to the report, South African medical expert Shabir Mazi, who was responsible for clinical trials of Oxford vaccine in South Africa, said in an interview that concerns about the ineffectiveness of existing coronavirus vaccines on mutant viruses found in South Africa are “theoretical but also well-founded”.
South Africa has begun to test the resistance of mutant viruses, and the specific results will be released in a few weeks.
Available research results show that the mutation virus found in South Africa is more variant than the mutation virus found in the United Kingdom, which means that it may evade the attack of antibodies and vaccines.
British Health Secretary Hancock and some medical experts expressed similar concerns earlier, and institutions such as Oxford University are testing whether the virus is resistant to people who have antibodies and have been vaccinated.
British infectious disease scientist Richard Lyocell also said that the mutant virus found in South Africa is more infectious than the original virus, has become a major epidemic strain along the coast of South Africa and will “invade” inland areas such as the capital Johannesburg.
