South Africa has paused its rollout of the Oxford University/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine. What does this mean for Australia?More Jobs for more GP’s – Government incentives are no longer making Australia and attractive option for overseas students.

Multiple vaccine developers have seen lower efficacy in trials of their candidates against the 501Y.V2 variant.

‘This is a worrying development. This is something to be taken seriously and thought through.’

That is University of Sydney vaccine expert Professor Robert Booy, responding to South Africa’s move to suspend its rollout of Oxford University and AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, AZD1222.

The decision to pause one millions doses of the vaccine is related to concerns about reduced efficacy in preventing mild and moderate disease from a threatening new variant that has already been shown to affect efficacy in other candidates.

Fellow vaccine manufacturers Novavax and Johnson & Johnson have both seen lower efficacy in trials of their vaccines against the 501Y.V2 variant, which first emerged in South Africa and has been linked to the country’s fast-moving second wave.

This variant shares key polymorphisms with a separate variant that emerged in Brazil, with both variants leading to a wave of reinfections – suggesting immunity from the first infection does not offer long-lasting protection.

‘The very real concern is that protection against this new variant may not be very good either for mild or severe disease,’ Professor Booy told newsGP.

‘The vaccines proposed in Australia should be protective against severe disease, while we have standard COVID variants – including the UK variant. But it’s very important we prevent the South African variant from taking over in Australia.

‘This virus is a significant foe. There have never been more active infections in the world then there are right now. This increases the risk of virus mutation to a form that may be more transmissible and less likely to be prevented by [a] vaccine.

‘We just have to adapt the vaccine the same way the virus adapts its genetics. A year from now, it’s possible we could have vaccines that cover more than one variant, and vaccines that offer one kind of protection for the first dose and a slightly different protection in a booster.’

But other experts, such as prominent infectious disease researcher Dr Müge Çevik, have cautioned that the data is early – and that trials of these vaccines against the South African variant still broadly suggest they are effective at the top priority task of reducing severe disease, hospitalisations and deaths. Reduction of mild and moderate disease is regarded as secondary.

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