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Pfizer-BioNTech Says Its Covid-19 Vaccine Works Against UK and South Africa Variants & nbsp | & nbspPhoto credit: & nbspiStock Images
Pfizer and BioNTech, makers of a Covid-19 vaccine, said Thursday their product was effective against the coronavirus variants that have emerged in Britain and South Africa.
In a statement, the two companies said the “small differences” found in tests comparing the original virus and recent versions “should not lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness of the vaccine.”
While the results did not indicate the need for a new vaccine to combat the new strains, Pfizer and BioNTech said they would respond if there was evidence the variants could defeat their current vaccine.
They would continue to monitor the “real effectiveness” of their vaccine, including against new strains, they said.
“Pfizer and BioNTech believe that the flexibility of BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new vaccine variants if needed,” they said.
Daily deaths worldwide from Covid-19 surpassed 18,000 for the first time on Wednesday, with vaccines seen as the only real chance of returning to some form of normalcy.
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