Vaccines against the virus that causes COVID-19 may provide less immunity to the Omicron variant than to other major versions of the deadly disease, according to laboratory experiments in South Africa.
Researchers at the Africa Health Research Institute in
Durban, South Africa (AHRI), found Omicron resulted in about a 40-fold
reduction in levels of neutralising antibodies produced by people who had
received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, compared with resistance to the original
strain identified in China nearly two years ago.
According to allafrica.com, the study was a pre-print –
meaning a study that was not yet peer reviewed but was released due to its
importance.
While vaccinated people might be more vulnerable to
breakthrough infections with Omicron, vaccines stimulate a wide-ranging immune
response that involves more than just antibodies.
“So these experiments may not reflect completely how well
the vaccine protects against hospitalisation or death from Omicron outside the
lab.” It added.
AHRI virologist, Alex Sigal told the The New York Times that
he and his colleagues had worked at breakneck speed over the past two weeks to
grow the virus and then test antibodies against it. “If I don’t die from the
virus, I’ll die of exhaustion,” he quipped.
A number of infectious disease specialists, when learning of
the Durban results, said there was a need for increased vigilance and for more
study, but the good news was that the South African lab found that the vaccine
does reduce the risks. It is likely, as well, that boosters will further
increase immunity.
It noted that the prospect once more raises the urgent issue
of the damage that travel bans against African countries have done to their
economies – and to their abilities to continue their ground-breaking Covid
research.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana, where researchers
were among the first to detect Omicron, told the BBC that the travel ban has
“throttled” the country’s diamond and tourism-based economy.
Global health specialists largely agree that the bans are unscientific,
ineffective and punitive in the current circumstances and may deter other
nations from sharing vital research in the future.
It was Zimbabwe-born Dr. Sikhulile Moyo who was one of the
first to genetically sequence the Omicron variant in his Botswana lab. Dr.
Tulio de Oliveira, Director of South Africa’s Centre for Epidemic Response
& innovation warned that the ban had reduced the supply of reagents and
other supplies necessary for continued research.
The Omicron virus is spreading rapidly in South Africa and
has appeared in dozens of countries around the world, in many cases before it
was first identified in southern Africa.
The Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. Justin Welby had
on Tuesday waded into the growing outrage among Nigerians condemning the United
Kingdom’s (UK) inclusion of Nigeria in its COVID-19 red list without
justification, saying it was a “travel apartheid” and calls for it to be
scrapped.
In series of tweets on his Twitter handle,@JustinWelby, the
Archbishop of Canterbury had urged the UK government to abolish what he
described as the “morally wrong and self-defeating” red list.
The United Nations Secretary General had a few days ago
described the action of the UK government as travel Apartheid, targeted at poor
nations.
Nigeria became the 11th country to go on the UK’s red list
for international travelon Monday. All nations currently on that list are
African.
The only people allowed to enter the UK from these countries
are UK or Irish nationals, or UK residents. They would have to pay for and
self-isolate in a pre-booked government-approved hotel for a total of 10 days.
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