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We have not completed week six and already 2021 is turning out to be an interesting year.
After much anticipation about the rollout of a vaccine, a major setback occurred on Sunday. The use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in South Africa was stopped because of lower effectiveness against the so-called South Africa variant â more formally known as B.1.351.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison tours the AstraZeneca laboratories in NSW last year after the government signed an agreement with the company to produce the vaccine.
Credit:Nick Moir
It has been found that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has poor protection against mild and moderate illness from B.1.351 among young adults. The vaccine may, hopefully, still be effective against serious illness, but definitive evidence on this is not in.