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Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reduced effectiveness against South African variant, new studies sh
Source: Washington Post
Live updates: Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reduced effectiveness against South African variant, new studies show
By Erin Cunningham
2/18/2021, 8:08:58 a.m.
The two coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna appear to be highly effective against the more transmissible variant of the virus first detected in Britain, according to new reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, in a potential boost to vaccination efforts around the globe.
The vaccines, however, showed a decreased ability to neutralize the strain now dominant in South Africa, worrying some researchers and prompting Pfizer and BioNTech to announce they were taking necessary steps to develop a booster shot or updated vaccine.
The new findings add to wider concerns about the South African variant, which recently showed significant resistance to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in a small-scale trial. Those results spurred South Africa’s government to scrap the vaccine in favor of the single-dose shot produced by Johnson & Johnson.
-snip-
By Erin Cunningham
2/18/2021, 8:08:58 a.m.
The two coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna appear to be highly effective against the more transmissible variant of the virus first detected in Britain, according to new reports in the New England Journal of Medicine, in a potential boost to vaccination efforts around the globe.
The vaccines, however, showed a decreased ability to neutralize the strain now dominant in South Africa, worrying some researchers and prompting Pfizer and BioNTech to announce they were taking necessary steps to develop a booster shot or updated vaccine.
The new findings add to wider concerns about the South African variant, which recently showed significant resistance to the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in a small-scale trial. Those results spurred South Africa’s government to scrap the vaccine in favor of the single-dose shot produced by Johnson & Johnson.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/02/18/coronavirus-covid-live-updates-us/