Astra vaccine may stop severe disease from South African variant, says study leader

London, February 8

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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. Reuters