The Cambridge biotech said its two-dose COVID-19 vaccine generates a weaker immune response against a worrisome strain of the disease that first emerged in South Africa, prompting the firm to plan a clinical study of a “booster” shot. The company said those antibody levels are still enough to protect people against the South African variant.
UK, Africa COVID-19 variants may be more deadly, officials warn
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UK, Africa COVID-19 variants may be more deadly, officials warn
UK, Africa COVID-19 variants may be more deadly, officials warn | Monday, January 25, 2021
This transmission electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, isolated from a patient in the U.S. Virus particles are shown emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. The spikes on the outer edge of the virus particles give coronaviruses their name, crown-like. | NIAID-RML
Even as 195 cases of a variant of the coronavirus, which first emerged in Britain and is more lethal and contagious, have been found in 22 U.S. states, a separate variant from South Africa, though not identified in the United States yet, is causing more concerns among health officials, according to reports.
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The United States is closely watching the more infectious variant of Covid-19 after British officials warned that it may also be more deadly, US National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins said on Saturday.
But US health officials are somewhat more worried about a separate variant from South Africa, although that one has not yet been identified among US cases of the novel coronavirus, he told MSNBC in an interview.
Collins noted the UK s data was preliminary, and said it was unclear why those with the UK variant faced a higher risk of death, whether by changes in the virus itself or other external causes such as pressures on the healthcare system.
The United States is closely watching the more infectious variant of COVID-19 after British officials warned that it may also be more deadly, two top U.S. health officials said on Saturday, cautioning more data is needed. Officials are somewhat more worried about a separate variant from South Africa, although it has not yet been identified among U.S. cases of the novel coronavirus, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins and Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's top COVID-19 medical adviser, also said.