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Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine may be more effective against the Delta variant than Pfizer’s, according to a new study.
Researchers found that the effectiveness of Pfizer’s COVID vaccine declined significantly last month as the Delta strain took hold, according to two reports released Sunday on medRxiv that have yet to be peer reviewed.
The effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine fell to 42% in July, from 76% at the start of 2021, according to the study.
During the same period, the study found that Moderna’s vaccine efficacy fell to 76 percent from 86 percent.
The study involved more than 50,000 patients from the Mayo Clinic Health System, which operates hospitals in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.
Both vaccines remain effective in preventing hospitalizations from COVID, according to Dr. Venky Soundararajan, who led the Mayo study.
However, he said a Moderna booster may be needed soon for those who received the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines earlier this year.
It comes as COVID cases increase, with the United States registering 100,000 new cases per day for the first time since February.
While new cases hit lows of 11,000 per day in June, the alarming outbreak is due to the highly transmissible variant Delta, which first emerged in India in December.
The Delta strain now accounts for about 93 percent of new infections in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cases are exploding especially in southern states, where some experts say vaccination rates are lagging.
Louisiana currently has the highest infection rate in the country, followed by Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri, according to federal figures.
Officials in several states have said spiraling infection rates are rapidly filling hospital beds and threatening to overwhelm health systems.
With post wires
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