There Are Concerns About Vaccine Protection Against S.African Variant

LONDON:British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said on Friday there were concerns about how effective the COVID-19 vaccines might be against the highly transmissible variant of the coronavirus discovered in South Africa.

“There are concerns that the South African one in particular – about how effective the vaccine would be against it – so we simply cannot take chances,” Shapps told Sky.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine appeared to work against a key mutation in the highly transmissible new variants of the coronavirus discovered in the UK and South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker.

The not-yet peer reviewed study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch indicated the vaccine was effective in neutralizing virus with the so-called N501Y mutation of the spike protein.

The mutation could be responsible for greater transmissibility and there had been concern it could also make the virus escape antibody…