- The Pfizer vaccine triggers a strong response against two prominent variants of COVID-19, according to a new study.
- The variants – found for the first time in the UK and South Africa – have raised fears that vaccines will not work with them.
- The study appears to refute this theory, but the results are preliminary and have not yet been reviewed by experts.
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The Pfizer vaccine may protect against new variants of the coronavirus, according to data from a new study cited by the Guardian.
The vaccine led to promising results when tested against two variants widely feared by health experts, one found for the first time in the United Kingdom and the other found 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.
Scientists at Oxford exposed the samples to each of the virus’s variants. They used samples from people who received a dose of the vaccine and people who took both.
The data, published here, has not been peer-reviewed, which means that experts are likely to treat them with caution.
However, it showed that after two doses of the vaccine, the immune response was substantial.
William James, an Oxford professor who worked on the data, told the Guardian that the answer was “at the level that neutralizes the virus”
James said his team is “very confident” that those who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be protected from infection by the variants, said the Guardian.
James continued, “This virus has not yet evolved, but I think that as long as vaccines are launched and people receive their second doses, we will be in a much better position in the summer than we are now.”
A dose of the vaccine increased the response to the virus, but not very strongly.
This suggests that it is “really important” that people get their second dose of the vaccine, Deborah Dunn-Walters, professor of immunology at the University of Surrey, told The Guardian.
The data is encouraging, but more data is likely to be needed to determine whether the Pfizer vaccine will fare against these new viruses.
A question that can change the course of the pandemic
Whether vaccines will work against the new variants is a matter of great concern worldwide.
Vaccines were developed and tested when the new variants had not yet appeared. Since then, the virus has been evolving.
New variants often involve changes in the virus’s spike protein region, which is the crucial segment against which vaccines act.
The fear is that mutations could mean that vaccines can no longer recognize the virus and, therefore, can no longer protect against COVID-19. In that case, new vaccines would have to be developed.
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Two of these variants, the South African and United Kingdom variants, are worrying experts.
The AstraZeneca vaccine appears to work against the UK variant, but emerging data from South Africa suggests that the vaccine would not protect against mild to moderate diseases of the South Africa variant, as Dr. Insider’s Dr. Catherine Shuster-Bruce reported.
This is even more worrying because these two variants are spreading rapidly across the world. The variant first identified in the UK is spreading across the United States, and the variant identified in South Africa has outpaced other variants of the disease in four states, including California, Governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday.
As long as the virus can circulate among unvaccinated people, it will continue to mutate and potentially learn to escape the protection provided by the vaccine that is currently being distributed, as reported by Andrew Dunn, Aria Bendix and Hilary Brueck of the Insider.
Scientists are working on ways to anticipate mutations, including mixing approved vaccines and developing new generations of vaccines.