Dr. Kirsty Short, a virologist and senior lecturer at
“Recent phase 2/3 data from both Novavax and Johnson & Johnson suggest reduced protection against the South African variant,” Dr. Short reports.
“The Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine group also released data suggesting its vaccine offers only minimal protection against mild-moderate disease caused by this variant.”
“It’s important to recognize ‘reduced protection’ doesn’t mean
no protection at all, and that data are still emerging” and
“What’s more, numerous vaccine manufacturers are now investigating whether tweaks to the vaccines can improve their performance against the emerging variants,” added Dr. Short.
Dr. Kirsty Short, a virologist and senior lecturer at The University of Queensland
Ian Gallagher and Peter Hitchens have written a couple of good pieces in today s
Mail on Sunday about Susan Michie, Professor of Health Psychology at UCL and a leading member of SAGE.
She is one of the most zealous advocates of lockdown, believing restrictions should remain in place long after the U.K. population has been vaccinated. Most readers of
Lockdown Sceptics will be aware that Prof Michie is a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, but Gallagher has uncovered some interesting tidbits.
There are some things that Prof Michie - whose first husband was Andrew Murray, once a key adviser to former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn - is rather less inclined to discuss, including money.
Covid-19 ‘variants of concern’ have changed the game – and vaccines alone may not be enough
Members of the Lancet Covid-19 Commission Taskforce on Public Health have called for urgent action in response to the new variants. Many countries lack the capacity to track emerging variants via genomic surveillance. | Christophe Archambault / AFP
At the end of 2020, there was a strong hope that high levels of vaccination would see humanity finally gain the upper hand over SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19. In an ideal scenario, the virus would then be contained at very low levels without further societal disruption or significant numbers of deaths.