Oxford vaccine may not be effective against South African variant

[Ninbus]

This is awful news. I really hope the government take this news seriously and does everything to keep this variant from spreading here. Sadly I don’t have much confidence they will have learnt this lesson

This is alarmist reporting, but it does reinforce two points. We are only as safe as the global community. Our vaccination plans must not stop with wealthy western nations, but instead be a global effort to vaccinate everyone - otherwise the virus will remain and mutate.

Secondly, it may just be because it's the Mail and I'm programmed to consider them racist shits, but there is a horrid 'othering' of South Africa and Africa in general here - the UK variant is bad, but not as bad at this 'African' version. In both cases it's silly as there is nothing to suggest either are unique to or even originated in either country, simply that we are sequencing DNA in tests so identify new strains more quickly than other nations. (I think c45% of all DNA sequencing during the pandemic was done in UK Labs, so unsurprising that new strains are identified here?)

Well you could have said that in February when stopping travel in to the country could have prevented such widespread spread of Covid. Or in the summer when we had reduced our cases. But then imported cases again from around the world. I am just thinking the government need to stay ahead of the game this time and stop the spreading of new variants if possible. Sometimes looking at what may happen is important to divert future problems

I am just thinking of other countries who have faired better and want up to learn lessons on quarantining arrivals etc such as South Korea

@Forgetmenot157

Then goes on the say that a tweak to the vacci e will take about a month if they have too

Exactly, if this virus behaves like the flu (I'm not suggesting it is the flu, before anyone starts) and new variants emerge periodically, the tweaking will be a normal yearly occurrence

Don't apologise OP! All you did was read the piece as they intended. They are scaremongering, they know it! It's what they choose to do to make money! They only had to change a few words to make the article 100% accyrate... but it wouldn't have been scary then!

Every mutation of every virus could elude any vaccine. That has been true forever. It's why the flu jab changes yearly. It's why the various labs are testing and re-testing covid samples and checking efficacy changes.

There will be new variants whatever we do, even 100% lockdown. That's in their nature!

@TwitterTwatterofTinyMinds

there is a horrid 'othering' of South Africa and Africa in general here - the UK variant is bad, but not as bad at this 'African' version

What do you mean? It amazes me how people can read so much into the simple fact that the variant apparently originated in South Africa. I can't believe all the politicizing that goes on in these threads, it's appalling

I was listening to LBC this morning and the scientist made this sound a lot less scary than mumsnet.

What is really pointless saying that “we want to stop the South African variant from coming here, so we’re going to stop flights from South Africa”...ignoring the fact that the variant is probably all over the world at this point. That’s exactly what happened with coronavirus in the first place. 🙄

@Ninbus

Well it’s still isn’t great news. They would have revaccinate everyone again? I didn’t expect to be accused of scaremongering by so many people. I might just report this thread myself and ask to have it removed

That's the most sensible thing you've said.

Posting shite from the Daily Fail about something so serious is very irresponsible. Try thinking & researchig before alarming people FGS

@Ninbus

Well you could have said that in February when stopping travel in to the country could have prevented such widespread spread of Covid. Or in the summer when we had reduced our cases. But then imported cases again from around the world. I am just thinking the government need to stay ahead of the game this time and stop the spreading of new variants if possible. Sometimes looking at what may happen is important to divert future problems

And you think posting on MN is going to impact the Govt behaviour?

It wouldn't surprise me if it's more the case that Prof Bell was being positive that their vaccine vector can be rejigged really rapidly to respond to new variants as necessary including one that's popped up in SA, and the press have twisted the story!

It's not news, it's a worry expressed with a missing context that the people involved in vaccine development are anticipating this type of situation and working on it.

It's this man's job to worry about this. It's far above my pay grade!

Maybe it helped some other mumsnetter but overall I think amplifying this is just sensationalism.

[quote Ninbus]Sorry I didn’t realise it was such a new story to people. Hope this link works.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9109397/South-African-coronavirus-mutation-BEAT-current-vaccines.html[/quote]
In other words it’s utter bollocks and scare mongering. Either provide a reputable source or don’t bother.

Tbf to the OP, the media have been and are being sensationalist at every possible opportunity. Everyone's worried, so it's bound to scare - which is what they're aiming for - clickbait and heightened interest.
Viruses exist as variants and environmental pressures bring about new mutations and variants. These are being followed, particularly ones that gain prevalence or suspected of affecting an important part of the lifecycle and therefore potentially the disease or epidemiology. Various scientific groups around the world can model or even visualise these viruses and see how these mutations may affect what we're dealing with. They're all over it. We just need to do what we can and stay away from tabloids.

The desire to censor on here by posters is astonishing. MN was always a place where people could debate ideas not continuously silence people under the word 'scare mongering'
This is an article in a high circulation paper not something just taken off fb. Lots of people are going to read it. Use this post to challenge and question the validity of it removing posts will cause more concerns in the long run than a robust questioning of the evidence.

It is also in the times, metro, the guardian, nypost
It is widely being discussed elsewhere.

And telegraph

It's definitely shows how international travel is an issue.

The story is that it’s as yet unknown whether the Oxford vaccine will be sufficiently protective against the SA variant. It’s unknown - but the Oxford vaccine can be rejigged accordingly fairly quickly. That’s the story. It will be covered everywhere.

I have no desire to censor, I just think the OP didn't actually give the full picture.

My stance on the south African strain is that the vaccine trials which were being conducted in south Africa in July has caused a mutant strain which is resistant to the current vaccines.

@MissMarpletheMurderer

The desire to censor on here by posters is astonishing. MN was always a place where people could debate ideas not continuously silence people under the word 'scare mongering' This is an article in a high circulation paper not something just taken off fb. Lots of people are going to read it. Use this post to challenge and question the validity of it removing posts will cause more concerns in the long run than a robust questioning of the evidence.

THIS!

I just want to add that I spent 22yrs as a molecular virologist working on HIV, HCV, and Flu, also in immunotherapeutic design (vaccines and antibodies), and spent some of my time in John Bell’s group at Oxford.

@Ninbus

It was also mentioned by Devi sridhar on Twitter- vaccine may not work - not definitely won’t

She's neither a virologist nor an immunologist, so her opinion isn't especially relevant.

@independent98

My stance on the south African strain is that the vaccine trials which were being conducted in south Africa in July has caused a mutant strain which is resistant to the current vaccines.

Just like the Oxford vaccine trials caused the new UK variant?

Pshaw!