According to a new English study conducted by health authorities in England, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines are almost as effective against the Indian variant of the coronavirus as they are against the English variant. After two injections, the first serum showed an effectiveness of 88% against the Indian variant and the second, an effectiveness of 60%.
Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines 88% and 60% effective against the Indian variant
According to an English study conducted by Public Health England published on May 22, 2021, the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford are almost as effective against the Indian variant of the coronavirus as against the English variant. To achieve this, the study conducted between April 5 and May 16, focused on the sequencing of the coronavirus genome in 12,675 cases, of which 1,054 were cases of the Indian variant. It appears that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was 88% effective against symptomatic disease of the Indian variant two weeks after the second dose, against 93% of effectiveness against the English variant. Over the same period, AstraZeneca’s vaccine was 60% effective, compared to 66% against the English variant.
According to the researchers, the difference in effectiveness between the two types of vaccine after two doses can be explained by ” the fact that the deployment of the second doses of AstraZeneca was later than for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and other data on antibody profiles show that it takes longer to reach maximum efficacy with the AstraZeneca vaccine “.
Even higher levels of efficacy are expected against severe forms
According to their report, the researchers also expect even higher levels of efficacy against severe forms of the B.1.617.2 variant. PHE as stated by Dr Mary Ramsay, responsible for vaccination at PHE: “NWe expect vaccines to be even more effective in preventing hospitalization and death, so getting both doses is vital to achieve maximum protection against all existing and emerging variants. “. For the time being, there is not yet enough data and hindsight to estimate the effectiveness of the vaccine against the serious forms (hospitalizations and death) induced by the Indian variant. Studies, currently underway, should provide some answers to this subject.
In the meantime, Health and Social Affairs Secretary Matt Hancock has expressed his satisfaction with these results, saying: “ We can now be sure that more than 20 million people – more than one in three – have significant protection against this new variant, and that number is increasing by hundreds of thousands every day as more and more people. people receive this second vital dose. I would like to thank the scientists and clinicians who have worked tirelessly to produce this research “.
