The UK Is "Going To Be Fine" If Vaccines Prevent Most Severe Covid-19 Cases, Oxford Trial Director Says
4 min read
The head of the Oxford vaccine trial has sought to reassure the public that there is no reason to believe that the South African variant of the coronavirus will thwart the UK's vaccine rollout.
He claimed that the country "will be fine" if jabs prevent the most serious infections, leading to hospitalisations and deaths, as is believed to be the case.
The government is trying to curb fears of the vaccine rollout being undermined after new study of 2,000 young South Africans, revealed by the FT over the weekend, suggested that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine provided "minimal" protection against less severe and mild forms of the South Aftican variant of Covid-19.
The findings led the South African government to pause the rollout of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday.
Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford vaccine trials, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Tuesday that the results of the South African study were "in many ways exactly we'd expected" as "we already knew in South Africa that the virus was able to cause mild infections in people who were infected earlier last year".
He stressed that it "wasn't the point" of that study to look at the how the Oxford jab affected the most severe outcomes of the coronavirus: severe illness, hospitalisations and deaths.
Pollard said that "the really important point" of the vaccine effort was preventing the most severe outcomes, as that would relieve pressure on the National Health Service, and that "all vaccines everywhere in the world, where they have been tested, are still preventing serious disease".
He said that preventing the most serious outcomes, rather than trying to erase the virus altogether, was "the clue to the future here".
"We are going to see new variants arise and they will spread in the population, like most of the viruses that cause colds every winter," Pollard said.
"But as long as we have enough immunity to prevent the severe disease, hospitalisation and death, then we are going to be fine in the future in the pandemic".
Pollard's comments echoed those of the University of the Witwatersrand’s Professor Shabir Madhi, who on Monday told the Today programme there was "hope" to believe that the Oxford vaccine, which is central to the UK rollout, would be effective in preventing the worst outcomes.
He said that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is similar in design to the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, reduced severe disease by 89%.
“I think extrapolating from that, there is still some hope that the AstraZeneca vaccine might well perform as well as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a different age group demographic at higher risk of severe disease," he said.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock last night revealed that take-up of the vaccine had been significantly better than the government had been expecting.
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference, he said that as of midnight on Sunday, 91% of the over 80s had been vaccinated; 95% of those aged 75 to 79; and “almost three quarters” of those aged between 70 and 74.
“We knew that the UK has one of the most positive attitudes to vaccine uptake. But even so, we thought we'd get take up of around 75%," Hancock said.
Hancock also sought to reassure the public that the UK would be able to deal with the South African variant of the coronavirus and others that emerge, explaining that “all viruses mutate over time, and part of controlling any virus is responding to new variants as they arise".
“We do this every year with flu, for instance, and knowing this we invested in the genomic sequencing capability right at the start of this pandemic, because genomic sequencing is how you identify new variants.
He continued: “We've given the UK one of the biggest genomic sequencing capabilities in the world. In fact, the UK has provided almost half of all of the COVID sequences that have been provided worldwide.
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