S1E62 / South Africa’s B.1.351 Variant — Immunity-Evading / Salim Abdool Karim, Richard Lessells, Jinal Bhiman, Allison Greaney

EPIDEMIC with Dr. Celine Gounder

KFF Health News and Just Human Productions

Society & Culture, #Eradication, Medicine, #Covid, Science, Life Sciences, #Sarscov2, Documentary, #Coronavirus, #Covid19, Health & Fitness, #Smallpox

4.6 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2021

⏱️ 23 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

"It just shows how difficult it is to be reactive with this virus. By the time you've detected something and understood the significance of it you're already several steps behind the virus." -Richard Lessells This is the second in our series on variants of concern. Our previous episode looked at the UK variant, and today we’re looking at the variant that emerged in South Africa: 501Y.V2. This variant is not only more transmissible, but has demonstrated the troubling ability to evade the body's immune system and even some vaccines. We'll hear from experts about how the 501Y.V2 variant is able to do this and what it means for our vaccine strategy in the coming months. This podcast was created by Just Human Productions. We're powered and distributed by Simplecast. We're supported, in part, by listeners like you. #SARSCoV2 #COVID19 #COVID #coronavirus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	If you have a strain like the South African one which has resistance to vaccine elicited
0:19.9	antibodies, that is concerning.
0:23.1	So being reactive to that problem is very challenging and it just highlights to me that
0:29.1	we've got to get ahead of the virus.
0:40.4	Welcome back to Epidemic, the podcast about the science, public health and social impacts
0:44.8	of the coronavirus pandemic.
0:46.6	I'm your host Dr. Saline Gounder.
1:00.1	Salim Abdul Kareem is the Director of the Center for the AIDS Program of Research
1:06.0	in South Africa, Capriza.
1:08.3	He's also the Capriza Professor for Global Health at Columbia University.
1:12.8	So do you go by slim or do you go by Salim?
1:16.2	Everybody just calls me slim, but my correct name is Salim, yes, either it's fine, I don't
1:22.6	care.
1:23.6	I'm agnostic as to which is used.
1:25.8	Okay, great.
1:27.6	Back in April of last year, near the start of the pandemic, slim and his colleagues had
1:31.9	started collecting samples of the coronavirus in South Africa.
1:35.6	They were looking for new variants.
1:38.0	This sequencing was happening a floor below Slim's office at the Quazulu Natal Research
1:42.4	and Innovation Sequencing Platform, or crisp.
1:46.4	And once a month, the Director of Crisp, Professor Tulio Delvera, would come up and he would
1:51.7	sit and go through the data with me and we would look at how the virus was evolving
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from KFF Health News and Just Human Productions, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of KFF Health News and Just Human Productions and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.