Oxford vaccine lead researcher Professor Sarah Gilbert said her team has "a version with the South African spike sequence in the works". The emergency of the more contagious South African variant in the UK has worried the Government and experts, and led to a door-to-door testing blitz in postcodes where it has been detected. "This year we expect to show that the new version of the vaccine will generate antibodies that recognise the new variant. "It looks very much likely that we can have a new version ready to use in the autumn." But there have been concerns that mutations of the virus could prove resistant to vaccines, with the South Africa variant one that has drawn particular attention.

Source: Daily Mirror February 07, 2021 11:03 UTC