Covid-19 Vaccine: Why South Africa put Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccination on hold afta dem order one million doses
South Africa don put on hold dia roll-out of di Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine afta one study show "disappointing" results against di new Covid variant.
Scientists say di strain account for 90% of new Covid cases inside South Africa. Di study, wey involve around 2,000 pipo, see say di vaccine offer "minimal protection" against mild and moderate cases of Covid-19. South Africa don receive 1m doses of di AstraZeneca jab and bin suppose start to dey vaccinate pipo by next week. For one online news conference on Sunday, South African Health Minister Zweli Mkhize say im goment go wait for further advice on how best to proceed with di Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in di face of dis findings. Na di University of di Witwatersrand carry out di trial but dem never do peer review yet. In di meantime, e say, goment go offer vaccines wey Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer produce in di coming weeks. "Unfortunately, di AstraZeneca vaccine no dey work against mild and moderate illness," Prof Shabir Madhi, wey lead di study, tell di briefing. E say di study never dey able to investigate di vaccine power to prevent more serious infections, as participants get an average age of 31 and so no represent di demographic wey dey most at risk of severe symptoms from di virus. Meanwhile, Prof Sarah Gilbert, Oxford lead vaccine developer, say di vaccines suppose still protect against severe disease. She say developers dey likely to get modified version of di injection against di South Africa variant, also known as 501.V2 or B.1.351, later dis year. Experts say dem fit redesign and tweak vaccines to be a better match for new variants in a matter of weeks or months if necessary. Early results from Moderna suggest say vaccine still dey effective against di South Africa variant, while AstraZeneca say dia vaccine provide good protection against di UK variant wey dem first identify for di UK. Early results suggest say di Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine protect against di new variants.