Professor Neil Ferguson warned the South African strain had taken root in Europe Professor Neil Ferguson today called for tighter border controls with Europe to keep out the dangerous South African of coronavirus amid fears it could undermine Britain's vaccine roll-out. The SAGE adviser - dubbed 'Professor Lockdown' because his gloomy modelling of the first wave spooked ministers into the spring shutdown - warned while the strain had failed to take root in the UK it was behind up to 20 per cent of infections in some countries on the continent. He added immunity from AstraZeneca's jab is 'particularly vulnerable' to the mutant strain, raising the risk of a spike in cases.