A vaccine from the US laboratory Pfizer is globally less effective against omicron, but protects 70% in severe cases, according to a study presented on Tuesday and carried out in South Africa, where the new variant of the coronavirus was detected in November.
This new variant of the COVID-19 raises many questions. According to the first observations of scientists, although it is more contagious, its high number of mutations raises questions about its resistance to vaccines.
The study, prepared by the country’s largest private health insurance agency, Discovery, together with scientists from the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC), is based on the results of 78,000 PCR tests obtained between November 15 and December 7.
“The second dose of the Pfizer vaccine shows an efficacy of 70% in reducing hospitalizations”, Discovery president Ryan Noach declared during an online press conference. So far this vaccine was 93% effective in severe cases.
Generally, “The efficacy of the vaccine is significantly lower when there is a high number of brief infections among vaccinated people”, Noach added. This study shows an efficacy of 33% against the risk of contagion, when there are many reinfections, and 80% against the delta variant.
“The severity of the cases is 25% lower than those of the first wave” from the pandemic, said Dr. Cheryl Cohen of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), who was involved in the study.
The president of SAMRC (a public medical research organization), Glenda Gray, considers the results “extremely encouraging”, since “the vaccine was developed to protect against hospitalizations and deaths.”
“Although there are less serious cases, health systems could be overwhelmed by the volume of infections, given the rapid expansion of omicron”Noach alerted.
South Africa knows an exponential increase in cases since it appeared omicron. They would be 90% of the positives. This country is the hardest hit by the epidemic, with 3.1 million cases and more than 90,000 deaths.
Just over a quarter of the 59 million South Africans are fully vaccinated, far more than the rest of the continent, but far from the rest of the world.
South Africa administers the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer (20 million doses were injected of the latter). In addition, the government announced that a third dose would be given from January.
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