LONDON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - There is still some hope that the
AstraZeneca and Oxford COVID-19 vaccine will prevent
severe disease from the South African variant of coronavirus,
according to the professor who found it had limited impact on
mild disease.
South Africa on Sunday said it would put on hold the use of
the shot in its vaccination programme, after data showed it gave
minimal protection against mild-to-moderate infection caused by
the country's dominant coronavirus variant.
Shabir Madhi, who led the study in South Africa, said when
looking at whether it could prevent severe disease, the
AstraZeneca vaccine could be compared to the one made by Johnson
& Johnson which has proved effective.
"There's still some hope that the AstraZeneca vaccine might
well perform as well as the Johnson and Johnson vaccine in a
different age group demographic that I address of severe
disease," he told BBC radio.
(Reporting by Kate Holton and Michael Holden; Editing by Guy
Faulconbridge)