How dangerous are the new variants of covid-19?
2:13
(CNN) -
A variant of the new coronavirus found in South Africa is spreading rapidly and researchers don't know if it poses a challenge to the vaccine, according to the scientist who discovered the variation.
"At the moment, we assume that the vaccine will be effective," said Tulio de Oliveira, a professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, South Africa.
"It could potentially affect the efficacy of the vaccine, but it needs to be properly tested."
On Thursday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC's Today Show that a different variant of the virus, first identified in the UK, “does not appear to evade the protection they provide. the vaccines that are currently in use.
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De Oliveira said the South African variant does not appear to cause a more serious illness, but is spreading rapidly.
"The more we study this variant, the more we worry," said de Oliveira, a virologist and affiliate professor of global health at the University of Washington.
"Our main concern is just the transmission speed and how this variant has mastered so quickly."
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He said that of the samples taken from about 400 people with COVID-19 who were treated at more than 100 different clinics in South Africa since mid-November, 350 had this new variant.
That's 90% of the samples.
What we know about the South African variant
The South African variant has been found in seven other countries: United Kingdom, Switzerland, Finland, Japan, Australia, Zambia, and France.
The variant has 22 significant changes from previous strains of the coronavirus, an unusually high number of mutations.
The UK strain only has 17 mutations.
Several of the mutations are related to the spike proteins found on top of the virus, which are the target of antibodies generated by vaccines.
"What worries us most is that three of these mutations are in the receptor-binding domain, and that is the most important region of the virus and a primary target of antibodies generated by the immune system and vaccines," Oliveira said. .
