Mutations Of COVID-19 In South Africa Are More Resistant, Vaccines Are Worried Not Effective

Photo illustration of a scene in Pretoria, South Africa (Kyle Philip-Coulson / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Scientists in South Africa expressed concern that the new variant of COVID-19 spreading in the country might be stronger against the vaccine that is currently being injected in several countries. Even so, that does not mean that the current COVID-19 vaccine is useless. How is the explanation?

"It's a theoretical issue. A plausible concern ... That the South African (COVID-19) variant might be more resistant," Professor Shabir Madhi, who is leading the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine trial in South Africa, told the BBC.

According to Madhi, answers will definitely come in a matter of weeks. Currently extensive testing is being carried out in South Africa.

Concern arises from the fact that the virus here has mutated far more than the British variant. One of those mutations may mean it can avoid the attack of antibodies that normally fight the coronavirus.

As we know, vaccines teach our bodies to increase the immune response, including creating antibodies to fight COVID-19, if one day they experience it. Antibodies are small proteins made by the immune system that stick to the surface of the virus and can effectively disable it. However, if that ability is weakened, the antibodies created after the vaccine may also be ineffective.

New possibilities

Prof Madhi said it was unlikely that the new coronavirus mutation in South Africa would render the current vaccine useless. It's just that it might "weaken the impact."

Meanwhile, according to Helen Rees, a vaccine expert from Wits University, said that if the current COVID-19 vaccine needed to be modified, it would not take long.

"Fortunately, if further modification of the vaccine is needed to tackle the new variant, some vaccine technology being developed could allow this to be done relatively quickly," Rees said, still quoted by the BBC.

South Africa recently rejected claims from the British government that the COVID-19 variant there is more contagious than the one in the UK. Scientists insist there is no evidence of that. They argue that mutations in the country do not make the virus more deadly.