The COVID-19 vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer is reportedly 75% effective against the new coronavirus variant discovered in India, according to Reuters.
- The vaccine has also been shown to be effective against the variant in South Africa, Reuters reports.
BioNTech chief executive Ugur Sahin told CNBC that the vaccine has worked well against many different variants.
- “So far we’ve had the chance to test our vaccine against more than 30 variants of the virus. It has proven effective against mutations so far,” said Sahin, according to CNBC.
- “We expect (our vaccine) to protect against infections by 70-75%,” he added.
Earlier in May, Sahin said the vaccine would work well against the India variant, which is a double mutant of the L452R mutation — which was originally discovered in California — and the E484Q mutation, which has made its way to at least 11 countries, including India, as I explained for the Deseret News.
- “We had similar double mutants in our prior testing, and we are confident based on the data we had in the past that we might see a similar fashion of neutralization of this virus. But we will only know it if we have the data in our hands,” he said, according to CNBC.
What does Dr. Fauci think?
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House chief medical adviser on the novel coronavirus, said this week that the vaccines are “at least partially and probably” effective against the India variant, according to the New York Post.
- “So in summary, this is just another example of the scientific data accruing … indicating another very strong reason why we should be getting vaccinated,” Fauci said, according to the New York Post.