England lockdown end date ‘very much in the balance’, expert warns

Prof Neil Ferguson says early data suggests vaccines may be less effective at curbing India variant

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The lifting of all legal limits on social contact in England next month is very much in the balance", one of the government's leading coronavirus advisers has said, amid hints" that vaccines may be less effective at slowing the new virulent strain of Covid-19.

Prof Neil Ferguson, a member of the government's Scientific Pandemic Influenza Modelling Group (SPI-M), said early data suggested vaccines protected against serious illness but may be less effective at stopping transmission of the variant first detected in India.