The drop-off in the effectiveness of current coronavirus vaccines against the new variants make strict international travel restrictions “absolutely essential.”

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Trinity Immunology Professor Kingston Mills said the vaccines show a “significant drop-off in efficacy” when tested against the UK and South African variants.

He said the efficacy of the NovaVax jab, which he described as “probably the best one on the market,” dropped by 35% against the South African variant and 10% against the UK one.

“That really tells us that the variants, particularly the South African one, are something we certainly don’t want to have in Ireland,” he said.

“We are going to be struggling to contain it much more so than the regular one - or even the UK one - with the vaccines we now have available.

“So, I think it is absolutely essential we have very strict procedures to prevent people coming in with that variant.”

He said the proposed 14-day quarantine for passengers arriving from the UK and South Africa will not be enough because passengers can often arrive via other countries with no record of where they have been.

Trinity College Dublin Professor Kingston Mills | Image: TCD

He said we need a strict system that treats all international travellers the same.

“The five-day post-travel testing is a good idea when combined with testing 72 hours before departure,” he said.

“That combination will catch most of the cases and it is going to be much easier to implement than a 14-day quarantine. 14 days is a long period of time to spend in a hotel room.”

Vaccines

Professor Mills said there should be six working vaccines on the market, although the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has so far only approved three.

“Yesterday, the Russian Sputnik vaccine was reported on,” he said. “It is the same technology as the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine although, it is a slightly different way they do it – I think a better way to be honest.

“They found that it was 92% effective after two doses and a pretty high efficacy – over 80% after a single dose.

“That is in line with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, both of those are adenovirus-based vaccines and they are a bit ahead of the AstraZeneca vaccine in terms of efficacy.”

EU agreement

He said Ireland should “definitely not” go it alone and purchase vaccines outside the EU Advance Purchase Agreement.

“We are benefitting from being part of the EU and we are getting the allocation of vaccines,” he said.

“We would never have been able to, on our own, negotiate the deal that the EU has negotiated because of their bargaining power and the numbers involved.

“So, it is hugely beneficial for us to be part of the EU on this. We are getting our fair share of vaccines and, when the supply comes on, we will have enough to vaccinate our whole population. It won’t be immediate but we will.”

Death toll

He was speaking after officials announced 101 further virus-related deaths – the highest figure recorded throughout the pandemic.

A further 879 cases were also announced last night.

Professor Mills said the high death toll was “staggering” but noted it was “probably inevitable” given the high cases numbers in January.

“We are sort of seeing a peak of what happened really a month ago in terms of the beginning of a surge in cases,” he said.

“Now that the cases numbers have gone down and hospitalisation numbers are starting to go down, we should see, hopefully, less people dying in the next few weeks.”

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