This is what Sarah Gilbert, who created the AZ-Oxford vaccine, has to say about its efficacy against the South African variant: "What that is looking like is that we may not be reducing the total number of cases but there's still protection in that case against deaths, hospitalisations and severe disease."
Not sure why South Africa wouldn't want these forms of protection. Maybe they have better options [although I haven't heard that any of the vaccines is proof against newer adaptations]. Maybe they don't know exactly what she is saying. Maybe the EU's sour grapes are infectious.
She also says they expect to have a version of the vaccine that protects against mild symptoms of the South African variant as well in the autumn. It sounds like it's going to be a bit like the flu from here - there are going to be new variants of the virus and new vaccines every year. Long bloody battle.
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