RE: south africa Interferon7 Feb 2021 20:19
Andrew Pollard, professor of paediatric infection and immunity and chief investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said: "This study confirms that the pandemic coronavirus will find ways to continue to spread in vaccinated populations, as expected, but, taken with the promising results from other studies in South Africa using a similar viral vector, vaccines may continue to ease the toll on health care systems by preventing severe disease."
In a news conference on Sunday, Prof Shabir Madhi, who has led trials for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa, said the study had been "largely disappointing" in terms of the jab's efficacy against the South Africa variant.
"Unfortunately, the AstraZeneca vaccine does not work against mild and moderate illness," he said, adding that the data did not say whether or not the vaccine might still protect at least against severe infections.
Earlier, Prof Madhi said a vaccine developed by Janssen showed it stopped moderate to severe disease, rather than all disease, and this kept people out of hospital.
"These findings recalibrate thinking about how to approach the pandemic virus and shift the focus from the goal of herd immunity against transmission to the protection of all at-risk individuals in population against severe disease," Prof Madhi added.