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The Corona vaccines from Pfizer/Biontech and Astrazeneca offer fairly high protection against disease with the B.1.617.2 variant of the virus, which first appeared in India, according to a study from the United Kingdom.
After two vaccinations, the two preparations protect almost as effectively against corona disease caused by this variant as against that caused by the British variant B.1.1.7.
British study on Pfizer/Biontech and Astrazeneca
According to a study by the government agency Public Health England (PHE), Pfizer/Biontech’s vaccine protects against disease caused by B.1.617.2 with 88 percent effectiveness two weeks after the second dose, compared with 93 percent for the British variant. For Astrazeneca, the effect against disease caused by B.1.617.2 is 60 percent, compared with 66 percent for B.1.1.7. Both vaccines reportedly had 33 percent efficacy for B.1.617.2 three weeks after the initial vaccination, compared with about 50 percent for each of the U.K. variants at that time.
The study took place between April 4 and May 16 and covered all age groups. The Indian variant is considered particularly contagious and has been a major contributor to the explosion in infection numbers in India in recent months. In the U.K. – as of May 19 – more than 3,400 cases of the variant have been confirmed.
The British scientific advisory body Sage recently wrote that it is “realistic” that the Indian variant could be up to 50 percent more contagious than variant B.1.1.7, which is already considered highly contagious.
- source: vienna.at/picture: pixabay.com
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