Moroccan Expert: COVID Vaccines Effective Against New Variants, Including UK Strain

"Whether it’s AstraZeneca, Sinopharm or even Sputnik V, they have all three shown great effectiveness against the British variant," said Dr. Taieb Hamdi, a medical researcher in health policies and systems at 2M. Regarding Sinopharm, its effectiveness against the British, South African and Brazilian variants has been proven after a study conducted in early February in the pharmaceutical group’s laboratory. But so far, the results have not been published in a scientific journal.

However, the level of effectiveness of these vaccines decreases against the Brazilian and South African variants. Thus, "a person who has already tested positive and received the vaccine can contract the South African and Brazilian variant again," Hamdi stressed, specifying that protection against severe forms of the three types of variant is almost assured. But according to Pr Moulay Mustapha Ennaji, director of the virology laboratory at the University of Hassan II in Casablanca, even if the vaccines are effective against the British variant, the degree of severity and transmissibility of the latter has reached 70%. But also, these severe forms are recurrent in children.

However, the appearance of these highly virulent variants does not prevent reaching the collective immunity estimated at 70%, stressed Pr Ennaji. In addition, several laboratories are about to develop an evolved version of the vaccines, which will be administered after a year, as a booster dose, with the new version against the three new variants.