| UPDATED: 17:30, Fri, Jan 8, 2021
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The UK and South African COVID-19 variants have been found to share a common mutation which makes them more infectious. As such, Pfizer teamed up with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston to investigate if the mutation affected the current vaccine’s effectiveness. The researchers used blood samples from 20 people who had received the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and found antibodies from the vaccine recipients successfully fended off the virus in lab dishes.
A similar vaccine by Moderna is being rolled out in the US and Europe, and on Friday was cleared in Britain. Moderna is doing similar testing to tell if its shot also works against the variants, as are makers of other types of COVID-19 vaccines.
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But Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, said this week that vaccines are designed to recognise multiple parts of the spike protein, making it unlikely a single mutation could be enough to block them. Still, testing is needed to be sure.
Viruses constantly undergo minor changes as they spread from person to person. Scientists have used these slight modifications to track how the coronavirus has moved around the globe since it was first detected in China about a year ago.
New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two highly contagious variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.
WASHINGTON President-elect Joe Biden says he’ll speed release of coronavirus vaccines when he takes office Jan. 20.
His office says Biden will curtail the current practice of holding back vaccine doses to guarantee that people who get their first shot can also get a required second shot three weeks later.
Under the Trump administration’s approach, the government has been holding back a supply of vaccines to guarantee that people get the booster shot.
After an initial glow of hope when vaccines were approved last month, the nation’s vaccination campaign has gotten off to a slow start. Only 5.9 million of 29.4 million available doses have been distributed (27%), according to the CDC.