This is good news despite the arrival of Covid variants in the world… This Friday January 8, 2021 Pfizer issued a release saying their vaccine – the first vaccine to have been approved in France and other countries around the world – is effective against the two new strains of the virus, one from the United-Kingdom, the other from South Africa. The effectiveness has been assessed after a laboratory study has been completed by the pharmaceutical group, as well as by scientists from the University of Texas.
The release yet as to be peer-reviewed but the news is encouraging enough to be shared. The study says the vaccine is able to “neutralize” the virus including the N501Y mutation of the protein, which is the case in the two variants found in France. “The antibodies from people who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectively neutralize SARS-CoV-2 with a key mutation that is also found in two highly transmissible strains” the laboratory explained. Long story short, only a very small part of the virus protein (1%) has mutated, and not the entire virus. Hence the affirmation of the virus effectiveness.
The study has been conducted on several blood samples from volunteers given the vaccine, but remains insufficient to firmly assess the confirmed effectiveness on the two variants. Why sharing the results, then? Scientists explain that the results of the study yet could help relieve fears on vaccines inoculated to millions of people around the world as part of the fight against the pandemic. Other studies are to be conducted to confirm these preliminary results.
