Pfizer says S African variant could significantly reduce vaccine protection

[BUtterfield 8 41,818]

A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday.

The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said.

Still, they are making investments and talking to regulators about developing an updated version of their mRNA vaccine or a booster shot, if needed.

Because there is no established benchmark yet to determine what level of antibodies are needed to protect against the virus, it is unclear whether that two-thirds reduction will render the vaccine ineffective against the variant spreading around the world.

However, UTMB professor and study co-author Pei-Yong Shi said he believes the Pfizer vaccine will likely be protective against the variant.

Source

[alsemanche 97,803]

8 minutes ago, BUtterfield 8 said:

A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday.

The study found the vaccine was still able to neutralize the virus and there is not yet evidence from trials in people that the variant reduces vaccine protection, the companies said.

Am I misreading or are these two statements contradictory? It says it may reduce antibody protection but also that there is no evidence that it reduces it so I'm confused at the point they're trying to make here and where the two thirds number came from 

[PartySick 172,545]

1 minute ago, alsemanche said:

Am I misreading or are these two statements contradictory? 

The way I'm reading it is just that they don't know. They say it's "not clear" if you'll be protected or not but they suspect you might not be

[alsemanche 97,803]

Just now, PartySick said:

The way I'm reading it is just that they don't know. They say it's "not clear" if you'll be protected or not but they suspect you might not be

Yeah i guess that's the point. I was mostly confused at the two thirds reduction figure because it sounded like they tested for that then they said that they're not clear on how it will affect the vaccine. Either way, I hope they manage this soon. New variants are still appearing and (I almost screamed at this piece of news) two variants have already merged into a third one that could potentially make things worse.   

[pedrohemg 7,802]

Every country wants to have its own variant now. 

[Bounty 799]

Well it’s over 

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

Well hurry up and modify the vaccine Miss Pfizer

[xoxo Craig 55,649]

7 minutes ago, pedrohemg said:

Every country wants to have its own variant now. 

England has several, which is difficult to get not everyone has that

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

We need a cure...

[PunkTheFunk 125,703]

 

[LaLuna 12,732]

14 minutes ago, TimisaMonster said:

We need a cure...

I agree. At this point it's becoming clear that vaccines are not enough. We need something that will actually treat the damn thing, but we can't even cure the flu so 

[YourWhiskyMouth 4,014]

Not me just getting Pfizer round 1 last week

 

[Bounty 799]

23 minutes ago, LaLuna said:

I agree. At this point it's becoming clear that vaccines are not enough. We need something that will actually treat the damn thing, but we can't even cure the flu so 

Viruses can’t be cured 😢

[Morphine Prince 109,683]

It’s good against the UK variant which will dominate so I’m not too worried. 

Hopefully the SA variant doesn’t grow rampant. 

[Nickypie101 1,591]

Would it still prevent deaths and hospitalization?