The preliminary data, which have yet to be to peer-reviewed and relate to only a small number of patients, also suggest that a significant proportion of over-eighty olds may not be sufficiently protected against infection until they have received their second dose of the vaccine.
As the SARS-CoV-2 virus replicates and spreads, errors in its genetic code can lead to changes in the virus. Towards the end of 2020, the Cambridge-led COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium identified a variant of the virus (now known as B1.1.7) which includes important changes that change the structure of the Spike protein, including the ΔH69/ΔV70 and Δ144/145 amino acid deletions and N501Y, A570D and P681H mutations. Researchers at Cambridge/COG-UK now report seeing a number of virus sequences that also include the E484K mutation, first seen in the South African variant.
Very simply. The vaccine does not provide the same level of protection to newest variant, similar to the South African variant, until the second dose.
My advice, for what it is worth, is to continue to take extreme precautions and remain shielding and behave as if you have not had the vaccine, at least until you have had the second dose, even then remember that it will take up to 3 weeks after that second dose for it to work efficiently. Hopefully by then we will be more certain of what level of protection there actually is, or whether there will be a modified vaccine available to counteract the mutations if needed.
For me having my first jab next week with the second one 12 weeks later plus the 3 week wait after the second jab, that will take me until the beginning of June to be able to pause or stop shielding. Even then I will still maintain the hands, face and space regime, because I have not suffered any infection at all since having Covid in April, not even a cold!
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