Scientific American
Reactions reflect unique features of an individual’s immune system, not the strength of a response
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Last month Robert Duehmig and Bill Griesar a married couple in their 50s who live in Astoria, Ore., and Portland, Ore. were each relieved to get their second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19. After the jab, Griesar felt nothing more than a sore arm. But for Duehmig, the effects were more pronounced.
“I woke up during that first night . with the chills and some body aches and just not feeling well by the morning,” Duehmig says. “I really didn’t want to do anything but sleep that day, which is about all I did.”
Apr 1, 2021
LONDON/CHICAGO – The rapid rise in various parts of the world of deadly, more infectious COVID-19 variants that share new mutations is leading scientists to ask a critical question has the SARS-CoV-2 virus shown its best cards?
New variants first detected in such far-flung countries as Brazil, South Africa and the U.K. cropped up spontaneously, within a few months, late last year. All three share some of the same mutations in the important spike region of the virus used to enter and infect cells.
These include the E484k mutation, nicknamed “Eek” by some scientists for its apparent ability to evade natural immunity from previous COVID-19 infection and to reduce the protection offered by current vaccines all of which target the spike protein.
Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 shot 91% effective in updated data, protective against South African variant
By Carl O Donnell
Reuters
(Reuters) - Pfizer Inc and BioNTech said on Thursday their vaccine is around 91% effective at preventing COVID-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.
The shot also showed early signs of preventing disease in a small subset of study volunteers in South Africa, where a concerning new variant called B.1.351 is circulating.
Although lower than the stunning 95% efficacy result reported from its 44,000-person clinical trial in November, overall efficacy of 91.3% shows the vaccine to be a powerful tool against an evolving virus. The virus now has more transmissible forms and those that have been shown to evade antibody protection in lab studies and real-world clinical trials.
The shot also showed early signs of preventing disease in a small subset of study volunteers in South Africa, where a concerning new variant is circulating.
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