Pfizer study suggests vaccine works against virus variant

New research suggests that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine can protect against a mutation found in two easier-to-spread variants of the coronavirus that erupted in Britain and South Africa.

Those variants are causing global concern.

They carry multiple mutations but share one in common that’s believed to be the reason they are more contagious.

Called N501Y, it is a slight alteration on one spot of the spike protein that coats the virus.

Most of the vaccines being rolled out around the world train the body to recognise that spike protein and fight it.

Pfizer teamed with researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston for laboratory tests to see if the mutation affected its vaccine’s ability to do so.

They used blood samples from 20 people who received the vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, during a large study of the shots.

Antibodies from those vaccine recipients successfully fended off the virus in lab dishes, according to the study posted late Thursday on an online site for researchers.

The study is preliminary and has not yet been reviewed by experts, a key step for medical research.

But “it was a very reassuring finding that at least this mutation, which was one of the ones people are most concerned about, does not seem to be a problem” for the vaccine, said Pfizer chief scientific officer Dr Philip Dormitzer.

A similar vaccine by Moderna is being rolled out in the U.S. 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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