For a number of reasons, as time goes on vaccines become less effective. So how do researchers calculate how well vaccines are working?
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Articles on Beta variant
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At this stage, we cannot say anything about the severity of cases with Omicron - either in primary or reinfections.
We are being cautious about the implications for vaccine efficacy and transmissibility while we gather more data to understand this lineage.
People who had previously caught the coronavirus, which is similar to having an additional vaccine dose, had more neutralising antibodies against COVID variants after being vaccinated.
New variants of the COVID-19 virus may be more contagious and cause more severe disease than the original. A pediatrician and infectious disease specialist explains why.
Cases of this variant – which has some potential to escape the effects of vaccines – have risen recently in France and Spain.
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The COVID-19 resurgence in South Africa is likely to take a heavy toll. It is important for vaccination efforts to be ramped up.
South Africa didn’t engage early enough with pharmaceutical companies in bilateral discussions to ensure it could get vaccines early.
Top contributors
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Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand
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Head: Division of Medical Virology, Stellenbosch University
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Research Professor and DST/NRF SARChI Chair of Virus-Host Dynamics, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, CAPRISA Research Associate, University of the Witwatersrand
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Professor of Molecular and Genetic Epidemiology, University of Nottingham
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Director: SACEMA, South African Centre for Epidemiological Modelling & Analysis (SACEMA)
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Head: Zoonotic, Arbo and Respiratory Virus Programme, Professor, Department Medical Virology, University of Pretoria
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Professor of Public Health, American University
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Director: KRISP - KwaZulu-Natal Research and Innovation Sequencing Platform, University of KwaZulu-Natal
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Senior Lecturer, Biomedical Science, Birmingham City University
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Professor of Microbiology, Biochemistry and Immunology, Morehouse School of Medicine
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Professor of Orthopaedic Trauma, University of Nottingham
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Principal Medical Scientist at National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), National Institute for Communicable Diseases
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Senior Medical Scientist, University of the Witwatersrand
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Acting executive director, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
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Senior medical epidemiologist, Centre for Tuberculosis, National Institute for Communicable Diseases
