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* South Africa could inoculate 100,000 initially
* Country put AstraZeneca vaccinations on hold
* Britain, France, Germany, Australia voice support for shot
(Adds South African lead investigator)
By John Revill
GENEVA, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Health officials around the world
gave their backing to the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-19,
after a study showing it had little effect against mild disease
caused by the variant now spreading quickly in South Africa rang
global alarm.
The prospect that new virus variants could evolve the
ability to elude vaccines is one of the main risks hanging over
the global strategy to emerge from the pandemic by rolling out
vaccines this year.
South Africa, where a new variant now accounts for the vast
bulk of cases, initially announced a pause in its rollout of a
million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
But it said on Monday it could still roll it out in a
"stepped manner", giving out 100,000 doses and monitoring it to
see if it prevents hospitalisations and deaths.
"It is vastly too early to be dismissing this vaccine," said
Richard Hatchett, CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness
Innovations, a foundation that co-leads the global COVAX
programme to provide vaccine doses in poor countries.
More than 330 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine form
the overwhelming majority of doses that COVAX aims to begin
rolling out in a first phase in poor countries beginning as soon
as this month.
"Obviously the world is full of the wild type virus that
this Astrazeneca vaccine is known to work against," Hatchett
said.
Professor Salim Abdool Karim, co-chair of South Africa’s
Ministerial Advisory Committee on COVID-19, said it was too
early to conclude that the AstraZeneca would not prevent serious
disease caused by the variant prevalent there.
If the vaccine does not work well against new evolving
variants of the virus, it could be an ominous sign for other
vaccines as well, showing that the virus can potentially thwart
the efforts of scientists to fight it.
The overall message from the World Health Organization and
others was: don't panic. Several global health officials noted
that the South African study was small and had tested the
vaccine using a short four-week interval between the first and
second doses, despite evidence having since emerged that it
works better if there is a longer wait.
It was becoming "more and more clear, the longer the
interval between the two doses the higher the efficacy," said
Kate O'Brien, head of immunisations at the WHO.
The lead investigator on the South African trial told
Reuters he believed the vaccine had a major role to play in
Africa and globally, and the 1 million doses in South Africa,
which expire in April, should be rolled out quickly, not wasted.
SERIOUS INFECTIONS
Western governments spoke out in favour of the vaccine,
which many have given approval.
The vaccine is the main pillar of the vaccination programme
in Britain, which has so far been the fastest of any large
country to vaccinate members of the public. It is dealing mainly
with another fast-spreading variant which the vaccine has been
shown to work well against.
"We think that both the vaccines that we're currently using
are effective in, as I say, in stopping serious disease and
death," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters.
Britain is also using Pfizer's vaccine.
Olivier Veran, health minister in France which is hoping
that the vaccine will held speed up a programme that has lagged
behind other rich countries, said the AstraZeneca vaccine
provided sufficient protection against "nearly all the variants"
of the virus.
But if vaccines do not work as effectively as hoped against
new and emerging variants, then the world could be facing a much
longer - and more expensive - battle against the virus than
previously thought.
The variant dominant in South Africa is circulating in at
least 40 other countries, including the United States.
Austria warned against non-essential travel to its Alpine
province of Tyrol because of an outbreak of the South African
variant. Cases were also detected north of Paris, forcing one
school to close.
(Reporting by Emma Farge, John Revill and Stephanie Nebehay in
Switzerland; Additional reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate
Holton in LONDON, Alex Winning in JOHANNESBURG;
Writing by Giles Elgood
Editing by Giles Elgood, Jon Boyle and Peter Graff)
