Oxford Jab and South African variant

[Bilgepumper]

Does the Oxford jab work against the new South African variant?

I don’t think the data is certain. However, if it doesn’t it can be tweaked to do so.

Yes, but not as well as against the original covid or U.K. variant.

The vaccines will all be basically the same.

Sorry, I should have been a bit clearer. At the press conference today, Dr Susan Hopkins was asked about this...
Quoted from the bbc:
Asked about the effectiveness of vaccines against the South African strain, Dr Susan Hopkins, strategic response director at Public Health England, said: "Three of the vaccines that have been used to date in the trials have shown that they've been effective against the South African variant at a level greater than was set as the minimum standard by the WHO.

"We expect all other vaccines to have a similar level of effectiveness, particularly in reducing hospitalisation and death."

I’m not certain that the Oxford vaccine was one of the three in the trials.

Data due this week apparently. Oxford has less of a buffer than the Pfizer, Moderna etc so I’m not holding my breath.

Do we know where in the UK South African one has been found ?

@Justpassingtime1

Do we know where in the UK South African one has been found ?

Yes, any news report will give you the affected post codes, it's being extensively reported on.

One interesting suggestion is that the 12 week second dose might be adjusted to give better protection from new variants. That would be mighty clever if they can do that.

I think this is why the government is shitting it...we're relying principally on AZ but if it isn't sufficiently effective against new strains, then we need to go to the back of the queue again for Pfizer et al. From govt point of view, that would destroy/jeopardise the "we're the greatest we're the prettiest ra ra ra" vaccination narrative.

news.sky.com/story/covid-19-mutation-of-kent-variant-detected-in-samples-could-help-virus-evade-immune-system-12206375

@TheMancunianCandidate exactly! Surprised the other vaccine manufacturers have reported their effectiveness against SA etc yet Oxford/AZ hasn’t (despite their being a trial in SA of Ox/AZ ongoing) 🙄. Unlikely to be good news given there’s less of a cushion effect.

I’m sure the majority on here will rush to Ox/AZ defence though whatever hard data shows.