An Israeli health worker Maccabi Healthcare Services is preparing to administer a dose of Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on February 24, 2021 in Tel Aviv.
Jack Guez | AFP | Getty Images
The coronavirus variant first discovered in South Africa is able to escape some of the protection of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a new Israeli study, which has not yet been evaluated by colleagues.
Researchers at Tel Aviv University and Clalit, Israel’s largest health care organization, examined nearly 400 people who tested positive for Covid-19 after receiving at least one dose of vaccine. They compared them to the same number of people who were infected and unvaccinated.
The researchers found that the prevalence of the South African variant, known as B.1.351, among patients who received two doses of the vaccine was about eight times higher than those who were not vaccinated. The data, published online over the weekend, suggests that B.1.351 is more capable of “breaking” the vaccine’s protection than the original strain, the researchers wrote in the study.
“Based on models from the general population, we would have expected a single case of the South African variant, but we saw eight,” Professor Adi Stern, who led the research, told The Times of Israel. “We can say it’s less effective, but more research is needed to determine exactly how much.”
CNBC contacted Pfizer for comments on the study.
New data is emerging as public health officials become concerned that highly contagious variants, which studies have shown can reduce the effectiveness of vaccines, could hamper the world’s progress on the pandemic.
Last month, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky issued a serious warning, telling reporters that he was worried that the United States was facing “imminent fatality” as variants spread and daily cases of Covid-19 began to return. again, threatening to send more people to the hospital.
“I will take a break here, lose the script and reflect on my recurring feeling of imminent fatality,” she said on March 29. “We have so much to look forward to, so many promises and potential where we are from and so many reasons for hope, but at the moment I am afraid. “
Israel launched its national vaccination campaign in December, giving priority to people over the age of 60, health workers and people with comorbid conditions. Until February, he led the world in vaccinations, inoculating millions of citizens against the virus.
In January, Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health reached a collaboration agreement to monitor the real impact of its vaccine.
The researchers noted that the main warning of the study was the same sample size. B.1.351 accounted for only about 1 percent of all Covid-19 cases, they said. B.1.1.7, the variant first identified in the United Kingdom, is more widespread.
As variants spread, drug manufacturers said they were testing whether a third dose would provide more protection.
In February, Pfizer and BioNTech said they were testing a third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to better understand the immune response to new variants of the virus.