Pfizer vaccine can effectively combat mutant COVID strain: Study

.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine can combat the mutant coronavirus strain, first detected in the United Kingdom, as effectively as it can other more common variants observed in the United States.

Supported by the two companies, the study concluded that it’s “very unlikely” that the COVID-19 strain, dubbed B.1.1.7., would not be neutralized with the same 95% effectiveness that the Pfizer immunization had in trials with other virus strains. B.1.1.7., which was first discovered in September, spreads more rapidly and efficiently than earlier observed versions of the SARS-CoV-2 lineage. The study, published on Tuesday, has yet to be peer reviewed.

“The efficacy of the vaccine is so good and so high that we have a little bit of a cushion,” said President Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky on Tuesday.

Researchers engineered versions of the disease called pseudoviruses, tested the blood of 16 vaccine recipients, and observed that their immune systems were able to successfully protect against the U.K. strain.

B.1.1.7 has forced the U.K. back into a stringent lockdown, and the strain has been detected in at least eight U.S. states, including hot spots New York and California. The first cases of the mutant virus in the U.S. were reported in Colorado on Dec. 29.

Earlier research conducted by Pfizer also pointed to the effectiveness of the vaccine against the mutant strain. As cases of B.1.1.7 surge, however, it may require more people receive shots in order for herd immunity to be achieved in the U.K.

“With the variant strain, you are going to require a much higher percentage of people to be vaccinated or have had the infection to achieve herd immunity,” Dr. Manoj Jain, an infectious disease physician at the Rollins School of Public Health, told the Washington Examiner last week. “Previously, we’ve talked about herd immunity at maybe 70%. With the new strain, we’ve got to be talking about something in the range of 90% to 95%, because it is so incredibly infectious, like measles.”

The U.S. has nearly 24,500,000 confirmed virus cases with over 406,000 deaths attributed to it, according to a tabulation from Johns Hopkins University.

Related Content

Related Content