London admits a decrease in the effectiveness of vaccines due to a new strain of COVID

CORONAVIRUS vaccines may be less effective against a new strain found in southern Africa. British HEALTH Minister Sajid Javid warned about this, reports REUTERS.

“What we know for sure is that [this strain] has a significant number of mutations, probably twice the number of mutations that we observed in the delta variant,” the minister said.

Javid noted that this indicates that the new B.1.1.529 strain is more infectious, which would make existing covid-19 vaccines “less effective.”

Ewan Birney, Deputy DIRECTOR General of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory, said early research data suggest that the new strain is a "serious cause for concern." “It may turn out that this option does not pose as much of a threat as [strains] alpha and delta, but the potential consequences of inaction that could arise are serious,” he added, pointing out that early responses are better than late ones.