South African Covid variant is not a ‘big fright or big surpise’, says Jonathan Van-Tam

April Roach @aprilroach288 February 2021

Professor Jonathan Van-Tam has said variations of the Covid-19 virus such as the South African strain are not a “big fright” or a “big surprise”.

England’s deputy chief medical officer urged those who might be panicking after reading headlines on the impact vaccines have on coronavirus variants, to take comfort in the fact that scientists are carrying out major research on the variants from behind the scenes.

Professor Van-Tam told a Downing Street news conference on Monday that the South African variant known as B.1.351, does not have a transmissibility advantage over the dominant UK strain.

It comes after a new study, which has yet to be peer reviewed, suggests two doses of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca jab offers “minimal protection” against mild and moderate infection of the South African variant.

Viral neutralisation against the B.1.351 variant was "substantially reduced" when compared to the earlier coronavirus strain, researchers said in a news release.

But Professor Van-Tam explained that the AstraZeneca vaccine was still “rather likely” to have an effect on “serious disease” among people who contract the South African strain and if the variant did become more prevalent in the UK, people in high-risk groups may need annual or biennial booster jabs.

"Just as variations of the virus were inevitable, it's almost inevitable we at some point would need variations of the vaccine,” said Professor Van-Tam.

Coronavirus infecting a cell - In pictures

1/7

"It's something we have anticipated for quite some time. This is not a big fright, it is not a big surprise.”

When asked about keeping the variant suppressed, Professor Van-Tam said scientists were currently seeing “small numbers” of the South African variant in the UK.

“And as I’ve said, I’m not seeing, and the early modelling data do not suggest, a transmissibility advantage for this virus,” he said.

“So, that being the case, it’s not going to kind of overrun or overtake the current B1.1.7 virus in the next few months, or that is the most likely scenario, that it won’t happen.

“I don’t think that this is something that we should be concerned about right at this point in time, and I agree with you that the stories and the headlines around variant viruses and vaccines are a bit scary. And I wish they weren’t.”

Richard Moss, 73, receives an injection of the the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine from Lance Corporal Carla Fraser
PA

Prof Van-Tam said his work recently had been “thinking over the horizon” on preparations for a “a long-term resilient vaccine-orientated solution”, adding: “And that includes the potential for variant vaccines for the autumn.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock told the briefing there are three parts to the Government’s plan to tackle new variants.

He said the first stage is the existing vaccine programme which is "mission critical". The second part focuses on developing a booster jab which is targeted specifically at new variants.

Finally, Mr Hancock said the UK is creating an onshore capacity to develop vaccines with "cutting edge messenger RNA technologies".

When asked about how long people in the UK might be expected to live with coronavirus, Professor Van-Tam said: “The key with this coronavirus is again through vaccination, to take the whole curve and shift it to the left, so the vast majority of the illness is an illness that is manageable in the community – as opposed to causing enormous pressure on our hospitals.

“And we can do that through vaccination, and if we do that we open up a whole way of living normally – much more normally – again in the future.”

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in