The Indian Variant Vaccine Efficacy is only 10%, and it was abandoned by South Africa

Since the outbreak of COVID-19,countries around the world can be said to have suffered from it. Although a fewcountries such as China have performed well, due to various reasons, not allcountries can learn or are willing to learn these effective epidemic preventionmeasures. So in the final analysis, to completely eliminate the threat of COVID-19to human beings, we still have to pin our hopes on the development of vaccines,and this is also the most effective means for modern society to face variousinfectious diseases.

Of course, thanks to advances intechnology, vaccines that used to take years or even decades to develop are nolonger needed today. But in turn, due to the progress of the times, humansociety is also extremely sensitive to the number of casualties caused by newinfectious diseases. In other words, developing a vaccine that can protectagainst COVID-19 has become the primary goal of countries today. However, it isobvious in practice that although modern technology seems to be quite developedto many people, the process of vaccine research by pharmaceutical companies andscientific research institutions in various countries since the outbreak of COVID-19more than a year ago fully shows that everyone still somewhat underestimatedthe the difficulty of developing a COVID-19 vaccine. Even the Pasteur Instituteof Virology in France and Merck & Co. in the United States havesuccessively abandoned the development of a COVID-19 vaccine. The status ofthese two R&D institutions in the industry is self-evident. Their failureto develop a vaccine shows that the COVID-19 is very different from theinfectious viruses that people have encountered in recent years.

But what is interesting is thatwhile the world is struggling with the COVID-19 vaccine, the Serum Institute ofIndia, the world's largest vaccine manufacturer, has taken a differentapproach. On the one hand, they are developing a COVID-19 vaccine, and on theother hand, they have begun to produce a COVID-19 vaccine for AstraZeneca inthe United Kingdom. It intends to use this two-sided bet method to gain a placein the global vaccine market with its strong production capacity. In fact,after the Indian version of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine was launched, it didopen up the market to all parts of the world in various ways. However, recentfeedback has shown that Indian variant vaccine efficacy is low. Especially inSouth Africa, it has encountered Waterloo. In the face of the mutated"South African variant" of the COVID-19, the Indian variant vaccine efficacyis only 10%, which can be said to be basically the same as the ineffective.

Considering that India hasdelivered 1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to South Africa, and thereare 500,000 more to be shipped. So even if the Indian variant vaccine efficacyis low, South Africa is not willing to waste these vaccines and continue toenforce vaccination. In the most optimistic case, only a few South Africanswill be able to gain immunity. Recently, South African Health Minister ZweiliMukez has announced that Indian COVID-19 vaccine of AstraZeneca will besuspended in China. He also claimed that the next step is to consider China'sCOVID-19 vaccine, and will actively communicate with China on this matter.According to South African media reports, Zweili Mukez claimed that 2 millionCOVID-19 vaccines will be imported from China. However, he could not disclosemore details about the import as the relevant agreement is still beingnegotiated. At the same time, this also means that China's efforts to resistthe COVID-19 have been recognized by more and more countries today when theglobal COVID-19 is raging. Perhaps, this will become an important battlefieldfor China to overtake Western countries on the curve.

However, for South Africa, choosingto import China's COVID-19 vaccine is certainly a solution to the epidemicprevention problem. But the nearly 1 million already imported, plus the 500,000Indian version of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine that is about to arrive isobviously not a small number. So far, the South African side has given twosolutions. One is for South Africa to stay for related research, and the otheris to sell it to other countries or exchange for other vaccines. It isunderstood that South Africa has plans to share the remaining vaccines withother African countries through the African Union. Although the  Indian variant vaccine efficacy has littleeffect on the mutant virus in South Africa, the situation with the ordinary COVID-19should be very different. And we should also note that the current situation isthat the COVID-19 vaccine is hard to find internationally. To say that demandexceeds supply is an understatement. Therefore, it should not be difficult forSouth Africa to sell these AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines.