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- Pfizer vaccine triggers strong response against two prominent variants of COVID-19, new study finds.
- The variants – first found in the UK and South Africa – have raised concerns that vaccines won’t work on them.
- The study appears to disprove this theory, but the results are preliminary and have yet to be peer reviewed.
- Visit Insider’s Business section for more stories.
The Pfizer vaccine could protect against newer variants of the coronavirus, according to data from a new study cited by the Guardian.
The vaccine showed promising results when tested against two variants widely feared by health experts, one first found in the UK and the other for the first time in South Africa.
The study involved testing the vaccine using blood samples from vaccinated people, rather than studying the effects on the people themselves.
Oxford scientists exposed the samples to each of the virus variants. They used samples from both people who had received a dose of the vaccine and people who had taken both.
The data, published here, has not been peer reviewed, which means experts will likely treat it with caution.
Nevertheless, he showed that after two doses of the vaccine, the immune response was important.
William James, an Oxford professor who worked on the data, told the Guardian the answer was “at the level that neutralizes the virus”
James said his team is “fairly confident” that those who have received two doses of Pfizer vaccine will be protected from variant infection, the Guardian said.
James continued, “This virus is still evolving, but I think as long as the vaccines are released and people get those second doses, we’ll be in a much better position by the summer than we are. are not now. “
One dose of the vaccine enhanced the response to the virus, but not very strongly.
This suggests that it’s “really important” for people to get their second dose of the vaccine, Deborah Dunn-Walters, professor of immunology at the University of Surrey, told The Guardian.
These data are encouraging, but it is likely that more data will be needed to determine whether the Pfizer vaccine will behave against these new viruses.
A question that could change the course of the pandemic
The question of whether the vaccines will work against the new variants is a matter of great concern around the world.
The vaccines were developed and tested while new variants had not yet appeared. Since then, the virus has evolved.
The new variants often involved changes to the region of the virus spike protein, which is the crucial segment against which vaccines work.
The fear is that mutations could mean that vaccines can no longer recognize the virus and therefore could no longer protect against COVID-19. In this case, new vaccines should be developed.
Read more: The latest COVID stimulus package means big changes at Obamacare. Here’s how it could save millions of people money on health insurance.
Two of these variants, the South Africa and UK variants, worry experts.
The AstraZeneca vaccine appears to work against the British variant, but data from South Africa suggests the vaccine would not protect against mild to moderate illness of the South African variant, as reported by Dr Catherine Shuster-Bruce of Insider.
This is all the more worrying as these two variants are spreading rapidly around the world. The variant first spotted in the UK is spreading across the US, and the variant identified in South Africa has overtaken other variants of the disease in four US states, including California, said Wednesday the Governor Gavin Newsom.
As long as the virus can circulate among unvaccinated people, it will continue to mutate and potentially learn to escape the protection offered by the vaccine currently being distributed, as reported by Andrew Dunn, Aria Bendix and Hilary Brueck of Insider.
Scientists are working on ways to get ahead of mutations, including mixing approved vaccines and developing new generations of vaccines.
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