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The new variant of the coronavirus responsible for covid-19 detected in the southeast of the United Kingdom, although it is more easily transmissible, should not decrease the effectiveness of the vaccine, public health specialist Constantine Sakellarides told Lusa today.
“As far as is known, it is not likely to affect the efficacy of the vaccine, as long as it does not interfere with the corona antigen, the antigen that stimulates the immune reaction,” said the former director of the General Directorate of Health and current member of the National Council of Public Health.
“All this is subject to reservation, because the information we have is scarce, but as long as there is no interference with this antigen, there is no reason to think that the vaccine will still not work for this new variant,” said Constantino Sakellarides.
British authorities have already alerted the World Health Organization (WHO) to the discovery of the new variant, which spreads faster.
For the public health specialist, this means that this variant of the coronavirus is “better adapted to the human species” and, therefore, “requires more care in controlling transmission from person to person.”
“This is already noticeable in the UK, because steps have been taken to try as much as possible to limit its expansion to the UK as a whole. There is a clear concern to take more intense measures to prevent its transmission, ”he emphasized.
The professor at the National School of Public Health maintains that “we need to know more about how this variant will evolve.”
“These are the first observations that exist, but we need to know more to be able to estimate the scope of the implications it will have in controlling the pandemic,” he said.
For now, it is still necessary “to defend ourselves at all costs until the vaccine reaches a substantial part of the population.”
“The defense measures against this variant are the same that have been adopted until now. Simply, if there is an expansion of this new variant quickly, when it appears, since the transmission is easier, attention must be doubled until the level of group immunity that the vaccine will provide is reached ”, concludes Constantino. Sakellarides.
The covid-19 pandemic has caused more than 1.6 million deaths worldwide since December last year, including 6,063 in Portugal.
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