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 South Africa variant can 'break through' Pfizer's vaccine

The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa can "break through" Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is low and the research has not been peer reviewed.

The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for Covid-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics.

The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up about 1 per cent of all the Covid-19 cases across all the people studied, according to the study by Tel Aviv University and Israel's largest healthcare provider, Clalit.

The vaccine appeared to be less effective against the South African variant, researchers noted. Crucially, however, the study shows that the variant does not spread effectively, they say.

It is believed that this reduced effectiveness may also only occur in a short window of time. Results from the study showed that there were no reported cases of B.1.351 in fully vaccinated individuals who had received their second dose more then 14-days prior.

Reference: The Telegraph: Jordan Kelly-Linden, Global Health Security Team  1 day ago