Central SA
'South African variant': I don't mean to disparage - presenter─── 15:00 Fri, 05 Feb 2021
CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota admitted Wednesday that her use of the term “South African variant” to describe a new strain of the coronavirus could be viewed as disparaging toward South Africans and that it was not her intention.
The conversation started on “New Day” after Camerota asked Dr Salim Abdool Karim, a South African epidemiologist, “I want to ask you about the South African variant. What do we know about it? Is it more deadly?”
Karim responded by calling the variant 501Y.V2 and said it’s spreading about 50% faster than the previous COVID-19 variant first discovered in Wuhan, China.
“I should just point out that even though the virus and this particular variant was first described in South Africa, it actually might not have even emanated from South Africa,” he said. “So it’s inappropriate to call it the South African variant. It’s better just to call it by its name, 501Y.V2. And we now know that it’s in about 31 countries.”
Camerota quickly corrected herself. “No, you’re right, absolutely,” she said. “I mean you’re right. And I don’t mean to disparage South Africa. It’s just that - a handy shorthand. But I know that you — that doctors don’t like that when we give a geographic origin because we don’t know that to be true.
“But in terms of the 501Y.V2 variant, is it resistant to the existing vaccines? Do we know that?” she asked.
"Critical question. Absolutely critical," Karim answered on CNN.
"What we do know, is as follows: From studies done by Professor Moore here in Johannesburg, about half of the individuals in a study of 44 patients who were infected in the first wave - that all 44 have antibodies that neutralise the viruses from the first wave - are not able to recognise or neutralize the 501Y.V2 variant. That poses a problem because it now means that about half of the individuals from the first wave may become re-infected if exposed. And that poses a problem because it now means that past infections do not protect against this new variant.
"With regard to vaccines, almost every one of the vaccines that has been studied against this variant in different ways, either in the laboratory or in clinical studies, have shown that the 501Y.V2 variant is more difficult to neutralise and that the efficacy is lower. And the most dramatic of those was a result released on Thursday where the Novavax vaccine was 89 percent effective in the U.K., but only 49 percent effective in South Africa. Deeply concerning."
