The major COVID-19 vaccines might have a good chance at stopping COVID-19 variants.
New study on Pfizer, Moderna vaccines and COVID-19 variants
The new study — done by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Center — suggested the two major mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna stopped COVID-19 variants, AFP reports.
- The study has not been peer-reviewed yet. The researchers said it is still a preliminary study.
- The researchers took blood from vaccinated individuals who got either the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine shots.
- Then, the researchers mixed those blood samples with “engineered pseudovirus particles” that contained the mutations similar to the B.1.617 or B.1.618 variants, which were first found in India, according to AFP.
Overall, the researchers found there was “an almost four-fold reduction in the amount of neutralizing antibodies” for the B.1.617 variant (first seen in India) and a reduction of “three-fold” for the B.1.618 variant (also first found in India).
Can Pfizer and Moderna stop COVID-19 variants?
The study’s senior author Nathaniel “Ned” Landau told AFP that the new study found Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines do stop the emerging variants to an extent.
- “What we found is that the vaccine’s antibodies are a little bit weaker against the variants, but not enough that we think it would have much of an effect on the protective ability of the vaccines,” Landau said, per AFP.
There’s more research on this idea, too. In fact, new research found that the COVID-19 vaccines do stop the variants but not to a high extent, according to Nature.
- “These vaccines are working,” said Mehul Suthar, an immunologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who led more research on the vaccines. “Because of the spectrum of mutations that have accumulated within the spike protein, the antibodies just don’t work as well.”