Millions will need third Covid vaccine dose in the autumn
Millions of people will likely need a third vaccine dose in the autumn, amid growing concerns that the Astrazeneca jab may not be effective against the new South African Covid variant.
It is understood that NHS chiefs are planning for the extra doses to be given alongside annual winter flu jabs, after a new study showed the new E484K mutation seen in the South African variant may prove resistant to the Astrazeneca vaccine.
South Africa has suspended the rollout of the Anglo-Swedish firm’s vaccine to healthcare staff following the results, which have not yet been peer reviewed.
The country received its first 1m doses of the vaccine at the end of last month, ahead of a planned rollout to frontline healthcare staff from mid-February.
Edward Argar, a health minister, this morning insisted that there is no evidence that the Astrazeneca vaccine is ineffective in preventing hospitalisation, severe illness and death.
Argar told Sky News that the South African strain “is not the dominant strain in this country”, adding that the UK has recorded “only a small number of cases of that” mutation.
So far, 147 cases of the South African variant have been identified in Britain. Scientists are concerned that its new E484K mutation, also found in the Brazil variant and a small number of mutated versions of the Kent variant, may be partially resistant to vaccines.
Early results suggest the Pfizer/BionTech vaccine is up to 10 times less effective against the South African variant and other strains with the E484K mutation.
Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines deployment minister, said millions who have already received the Astrazeneca jab would “probably [need] an annual or a booster in the autumn and then an annual vaccination”.
Zahawi said that this would be done “in the way we do with flu vaccinations, where you look at what variant of virus is spreading around the world, you rapidly produce a variant of vaccine, and then begin to vaccinate and protect the nation”.
Astrazeneca last week said it aims to produce a “next generation” Covid-19 vaccine especially suited to new mutations as soon as the autumn.
Mene Pangalos, a senior research chief at the British-Swedish firm, said Astrazeneca will start developing a new vaccine for the mutated strains and will look to make them public “as rapidly as possible”.
It comes after the government on Friday signed a deal with German biotech firm CureVac for 50m doses of a new vaccine being developed to tackle emerging Covid mutations.
The deal will see CureVac create “new varieties of vaccines based on messenger RNA technology to be developed quickly against new strains of Covid-19 if they are needed”, as ministers face growing pressure to drum up a strategy for snuffing out new coronavirus strains.
A spokesperson for Astrazeneca, which manufactures the vaccine, said: “We do believe that our vaccine could protect against severe disease.”