On Feb. 5, 2021, Oxford University announced that a preprint of ongoing work to assess effectiveness of Oxford’s ‘Kent’ coronavirus strain currently circulating in the UK to previously circulating variants.

The Oxford University researchers who developed the ChAdOx1-nCoV 19 vaccine have found that it remains effective against one of the new variants of the disease.

The preprint also describes recent analysis showing that vaccination with ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 results in a reduction in the duration of shedding and viral load, which may translate into a reduced transmission of the disease.

‘Data from their trials of the ChAdOx1 vaccine in the United Kingdom indicate that the vaccine not only protects against the original pandemic virus, but also protects against the novel variant, B.1.1.7, which caused the surge in disease from the end of 2020 across the UK.’

Sarah Gilbert, Professor of Vaccinology, and Chief Investigator on the Oxford vaccine trial, said: ‘All viruses accumulate mutations over time, and for influenza vaccines there is a well-known process of global viral surveillance, and selection of strains for an annual update of the vaccines.’

Between 1 October 2020 and 14 January 2021, the researchers used swabs taken from volunteers with both symptomatic and asymptomatic infection enrolled in a phase II/III vaccine efficacy study to work out which strain of coronavirus they had been infected with after receiving either the vaccine or the control.

The protection against symptomatic infection was similar despite lower neutralising antibody titres in vaccinated individuals against the B.1.1.7 variant than the ‘Victoria’ strain of virus.