South African variant may evade vaccines and testing, warn scientists

Former health secretary, Jeremy Hunt, voices fears over mutation and calls for a 12-week lockdown

Ambulance workers assist a patient outside the Royal London Hospital. In the wake of the South African variant of coronavirus, Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has called for an immediate 12-week lockdown and a closure of Britain’s borders and schools
Ambulance workers assist a patient outside the Royal London Hospital. In the wake of the South African variant of coronavirus, Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has called for an immediate 12-week lockdown and a closure of Britain’s borders and schools Credit: Facundo Arrizabalaga/Shutterstock

The South African variant of coronavirus may be resistant to vaccines and more difficult to pick up through testing, scientists have warned, as they called for the immediate closure of borders.

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock said he was "incredibly worried" about the new mutation saying it was "even more of a problem than the UK variant."

The variant was picked up in Britain in December, and there are fears it may spread even more quickly than the Kent mutation which has caused an alarming spike in cases, hospital admissions and deaths. 

Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary, has called for an immediate 12 week lockdown and a closure of Britain’s borders and schools. 

He said: “To those arguing winter is always like this in the NHS: you are wrong. I faced four serious winter crises as health secretary and the situation now is off-the-scale worse than any of those.” 

The South African variant carries two mutations at key areas of the gene which builds the spike protein – a projecting arm that the virus uses to attach to human cells.  

tmg.video.placeholder.alt DuCeXQhIqR8

The spike protein is also produced by vaccines so that the body knows what to look for and what to fight off. But any significant changes to the spike protein may mean the body cannot spot the virus even after vaccination or a previous infection. 

Worryingly, the changes may mean that it is harder to pick up cases through polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing. 

Dr Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said: “The South African variant has a number additional mutations including changes to some of the virus’s spike protein which are concerning.    

“They cause more extensive alteration of the spike protein than the changes in the Kent variant and may make the virus less susceptible to the immune response triggered by the vaccines.    

“While it is more infectious, it currently remains unclear whether it causes a more severe form of the disease.  

"Moreover, the South African variant is a more difficult virus to track as it lacks some mutations in the spike found in the Kent virus which make it easily detectable by the PCR test used by the NHS.”

Scientists are carrying out urgent work to check if the vaccines will still work on the new variants. 

There are also fears that people who have already had the virus may not be protected from the new mutated virus. 

Francois Balloux, professor of computational systems biology at University College London (UCL), said: “The E484K mutation has been shown to reduce antibody recognition.    

“As such, it helps the virus SARS-CoV-2 to bypass immune protection provided by prior infection or vaccination. It is not anticipated that this mutation is sufficient for the South African variant to bypass the protection provided by current vaccines.    

“It’s possible that new variants will affect the efficacy of the Covid-19 vaccines, but we shouldn’t make that assumption yet about the South African one.”   

Variants of coronavirus have been around since the beginning of the pandemic and are a natural evolutionary process by which viruses adapt to their hosts as they replicate.     

Although most of these mutations have no effect, occasionally they can improve the ability of the virus to infect or become more resistant to the body’s immune response.    

The South African variant is known to spread rapidly and is already dominant in the Eastern and Western Cape provinces and scientists are worried it may be able to evade the immune system far more effectively than the UK variant. 

Scientists said that further restrictions must be brought in to prevent the further spread. 

Lawrence Young, virologist and professor of molecular oncology, at Warwick Medical School at the University of Warwick, said: “While changes in the UK variant are unlikely to impact the effectiveness of current vaccines, the accumulation of more spike mutations in the South African variant are more of a concern and could lead to some escape from immune protection.    

“The move to harsher levels of restriction across the country is inevitable. It is essential that we do everything possible to prevent the South African variant from spreading to the UK population.     

“Quarantine measures and restricting travel from and to South Africa are imperative.”    

Professor James Naismith, director of the Rosalind Franklin Institute, a national institute funded by the UK Government through UK Research and Innovation, added: “Further social restrictions are required if we wish to avoid overloading the NHS before the vaccines stop spread.     

“Those who advocate reducing social restrictions really should make clear the costs in lives of their policy.  In our democracy we elect politicians, not scientists, to take decisions. We expect politicians to make decisions based on facts, not fantasy.” 

License this content