Vaccines ‘almost certainly less effective’ against B1.617.2 transmission, says UK expert

Under a pre-set lockdown easing roadmap, most businesses in U.K. are set to resume full activity from Monday.

The vaccines being administered to protect against COVID-19 are “almost certainly less effective” against preventing the transmission of the B1.617.2 variant first identified in India, a leading UK scientist who advises the country’s vaccination programme said on Saturday. Professor Anthony Harnden, from the University of Oxford who is the deputy chair of the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI), said it was important to approach the easing of lockdown in England with “utmost caution” as it remains unclear exactly how much more transmissible the variant detected in India is. But he reiterated that there is no evidence so far of increased severity of illness or that the particular mutation of the coronavirus evades the vaccine.