VARIANT OPTIMISM

19th March 2021

VARIANT OPTIMISM

Photo by: Bloomberg

A study published this month shows that the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech showed a high ability to neutralise coronavirus variants first detected in Brazil, the UK and South Africa. Bloomberg reports that, in laboratory experiments, the shot demonstrated “roughly equivalent” levels of neutralising activity against the Brazil and UK variants compared with a version of the virus from early last year. It also showed “robust but lower” activity against the South Africa variant, according to a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine. The research needs to be validated with real-world data, but offers another reason for optimism that the Covid vaccines are generally performing well against variants of the virus. Photograph: Bloomberg