The rapid spread of the UK COVID-variant virus is a clear warning of what can happen when one mutates. Scientists there are getting on top of understanding it better. However, there are open questions about the South African variant for which answers are outstanding. The country’s economy intertwines with the rest of the world so this is not an isolated incident as it will spread.
Justified Concerns About This Deeply-Mutated Variant
Prof Shabir Madhi is professor of vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He told Newsweek.Com the mutation might ‘weaken the impact’ of current vaccines on January 5, 2021. Elsewhere, he told concerned UK scientists he was conducting ‘extensive testing’ with results hopefully within a few weeks.
His concerns seem justifiable given the virus has mutated far more than the variant in UK. And this might mean ‘it can evade attack by antibodies that would normally fight coronavirus’ he told BBC. Antibodies are the proteins immune systems send out to disable attacking viruses. But if they can’t adhere to them, then their defense fails.
Emerging Answers to Open Questions About South African Variant
However, Prof Shabir Madhi expects South Africa’s mutation will only ‘weaken the impact’ of the vaccinated immune response. Moreover vaccine expert at Wits University, Prof Helen Rees believes some vaccine technologies developing could adapt ‘relatively quickly’. And this emphasizes the importance of the universal roll out of COVID vaccination, she says.
However, Prof Barry Schoub chairing the South African government’s advisory committee on vaccines is more positive. That’s because he believes preliminary tests do not suggest the mutation could ‘escape the impact of current vaccines’.
These open questions about the South African variant should therefore remain pending until we have answers. Until we have laboratory evidence. And scientific consensus regarding the risks of South Africa’s COVID-19 variant causing these concerns.
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