A new study suggests that Pfizer Inc and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine can stop the new COVID-19 mutation that has swept through the UK and has reached the United States, according to Reuters.
- The vaccine reportedly works against the variant in South Africa, too, according to the study.
The study — which comes from Pfizer and scientists at the University of Texas Medical Branch — found the vaccine was effective in stopping the new mutation of the spike protein, Reuters reports,
Per The Daily Beast, the vaccine is said to be effective against 16 different versions of the novel coronavirus.
- However, the study has not been peer-reviewed.
The researchers looked at blood samples from people who had received the COVID-19 vaccine. The findings are a little limited, though, because it doesn’t look at the full set of mutations in the new variants, Reuters reports.
Bigger picture:
The new COVID-19 variant — which was originally discovered in the United Kingdom — has popped up throughout the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has found more than 50 cases of the new COVID-19 variant in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New York, among others, as I wrote about for the Deseret News.
- National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told The Washington Post Wednesday: “I would be surprised if that doesn’t grow pretty rapidly.”