Doctor: Covid19 vaccine effective against UK variant

Any of the current vaccines now available on the market should be effective against the UK variant of covid19 according to Dr Christopher Oura, Professor of Veterinary Virology at the Faculty of Medical Sciences, UWI.

It was reported that a person was detected as having the variant while in state quarantine after a January 6 flight from the UK.

At a health ministry conference on Friday morning, Chief Medical Officer Dr Roshan Parasram, said the patient had a negative PCR test 72 hours before boarding the aircraft which left the UK, landed in Barbados and then came to Trinidad.

The patient was transported to the Paria Suites Hotel, tested and found positive for covid19, taken to a step-down facility with other positives, and then isolated at the Couva Health facility because they came from the UK.

He learned the patient tested positive for the UK variant on January 21.

There were 49 people on the flight from the UK with the positive patient, all of whom were put into quarantine facilities. They already spent their 14-day quarantine period in those facilities, and the ones who went home would have had a day six negative before they were discharged.

Oura told Sunday Newsday “at the moment” there was evidence that the current vaccines would be effective against the UK variant. However, there was “initial evidence” that the vaccines may not be as efficient against the variants from South Africa and Brazil.

“More evidence is needed from the scientists to prove this possible reduced level of cross-protection between the South Africa and Brazil variants versus the older virus and the vaccine derived from it. We have to do more work with that and confirm it.”

This could mean that people who were infected with the original virus could also be susceptible. He said it was possible that those with the vaccine or who were previously infected could have slightly more protection than unvaccinated or non-infected people.

Again, he stressed that scientists do not yet know if the South Africa and Brazil variants were significantly different from the UK variant or the original virus.

Speaking in Parliament during his Budget presentation in October 2020, Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said Cabinet approved $66 million for the purchase of 462,000 vaccines through the COVAX Facility. But later, in January he said the vaccination process, which was expected to begin in March, would do so with 50,000 doses of vaccine.

The 50,000 doses would be offered to 25,000 people, who would have to take the vaccine in two doses. The process was expected to begin with covid19 frontline workers, health care workers, and the elderly.

Deyalsingh also said TT was in talks with external companies such as Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and China’s Sinopharm to procure vaccines outside of COVAX.

UK VARIANT

In general, viruses changed constantly, looking for an advantage to infect as many people as possible.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website stated that severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which is the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (covid19) mutates regularly, about every two weeks.

Oura said some mutations are advantageous to the virus, and those that are not usually die out in the population and eventually disappeared. In this case, as is happening in the UK, the more transmissible variant is overtaking the others and becoming more dominant in the population.

He noted that the UK variant is a slightly adapted, mutated form of the virus which appeared in the south east of England around October. It is said to be 50 to 70 per cent more transmissible and, on Friday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that early evidence suggested it may be 30 per cent more deadly.

“We realised from relatively early on that we had something new because there were parts of the country which were in lockdown which were not able to control viral transmission whereas other parts of the country, under the same lockdown conditions, were able to control viral transmissions.

“This raised a rad flags so the scientists got onto it and started looking for the differences in the viruses circulating in the two areas. And they found that this new variant was becoming dominant in the south east of the country where they were having trouble controlling the virus even with lockdown measures.”

Scientists sequenced the virus and studied the mutations in the areas of the virus that were coded for the “spike protein” which acts like a key that opens the cells and allows the virus to enter, and interact with the immune system.

“We found that the mutations enabled the virus to enter cells more easily, so the key fits better. The virus gets into more cells more efficiently and so more of the virus is replicated and more is excreted. So, with the new variant, when we cough and sneeze, and talk and laugh and sing we are passing out more of the virus than we did with the original. And that’s why it’s transmitting more and more efficiently.”

However, he said it was a bit too early to say it was more deadly with any certainty. He believed more work needed to be done as, at the moment, there was not enough evidence to confirm that statement, although it could be confirmed or debunked within the next few weeks.

Difficult to keep variant out of TT

Oura believed it was inevitable that the variant would reach the Caribbean, as it has in Jamaica and TT. He hoped TT’s strict testing and quarantine measures were able to stop the transmission of the variant to others in TT.

“However, there is a possibility because there are weak links in the process – on the aeroplane, at the airport, while being transported to quarantine. There may have been a time period where that person could have transmitted the virus to someone else.”

He said it would be extremely difficult to keep the variant out of TT as long as people were coming into the country. He said the negative PCR test 72 hours before entering would help but not stop it. Because if someone contracted the virus not long before the test, the virus would be in an incubation period and not show up on the test.

“The only way you can stop the virus from coming in is by stopping everybody coming in. So what we’re trying to do in TT is to reduce the risk of people bringing it in but it’s almost impossible to stop it completely. And the new variant will be more of a challenge to control once it gets into a population.”

In addition, he said about 50 per cent of the people, especially younger people, who have covid19 were asymptomatic. Most were not aware they had it but they were still able to transmit it.

“All this highlights the importance of people conforming to the current, non-pharmaceutical measures which do work – wash your hands, keep two metres away, wear a mask especially when you are indoors. Those become more and more important because if you do all three, then you are less likely to get the virus, even the new variant.”