AstraZeneca and Pfizer Vaccines Effective Against Indian Variant of COVID

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AstraZeneca and Pfizer
COVID vaccine

According to the latest study, the AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are immensely efficient against the Indian variant.

With two shots of either of these vaccines, a similar amount of protection can be provided against deadly Indian variant. This

applies to the Kent variant as well. However, both these vaccines were just 33% fruitful against the Indian variant in three weeks post the first dose. But they were 50% effective against the Kent one. 

How is the vaccine effective against the Indian variant?

According to a study by Public Health England (PHE), these vaccines are more effective at averting deaths and hospital admissions. 

The Moderna corona vaccine has been in use in the United Kingdom since April. However, the number of vaccinated people was small to give adequate clarity. 

Health Secretary Matt Hancock expressed that the results from the research can ease restrictions from June 21.

He also said that the information showed that getting both doses of the vaccine was immensely necessary.

According to Home Secretary Priti Patel, the information was affirmative. But people need to follow the stages to reduce restrictions further. To the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, she said they are following the given data and making themselves more aware. They were also following the protocols like social distancing and wearing masks. That would help them to unlock on June 21. 

Journalists asked the Home Secretary about the criticisms she faced to put India on the red list for travel. To that, she said that current data suggests that it is the best decision to take. She also defended

controls at the UK border by focusing upon the pre-arrival testing requisites. She stated a robust system that ensured that the individuals arriving from red list countries practiced quarantine. 

According to the official figures, as of May 25, five people have died in 28 days post-testing positive for coronavirus in the UK. Additionally, another 2235 people have tested positive.

Healthcare workers administered over 60 million vaccine shots, with 37,943,681 first doses and 22,643,417 second doses.

AstraZeneca and Pfizer Vaccines effective against Indian variant as per studies

The Pfizer vaccine is 88% effective against the indicative symptoms caused by the Indian variant. Just two weeks after complete

vaccination, a person received maximum protection from this one. However, the vaccine had 93% efficacy against the Kent variant. On the other hand, the AstraZeneca shot was 60% successful against the Indian variant compared to 66% against the Kent variant. 

According to PHE, there is dissimilarity in the efficacy of the vaccines post two doses. This can be because the sanction of AstraZeneca roll out of the second doses of vaccine happened later than the Pfizer vaccines – the one approved first. 

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PHE said that other sources of information had discovered that it took more time for the AstraZeneca vaccines to reach optimum efficiency. Approximately 12,675 genome-sequenced cases were involved in the research, which occurred between April 5 and May 16. Merely 1,054 of those cases included Indian variation, known as B.1.617.2.

According to Dr. Jenny Harries, who spoke at the Andrew Marr Show, the research was a cause to celebrate. As per the UK’s chief executive of the Health Security Agency, the study depicted the first real-life confirmation of the vaccine’s efficacy against this variant. When questioned regarding the disparity between the AstraZeneca and the Pfizer vaccine outcomes, she pointed out that such discrepancy might have existed owing to the difference of age groups to which they were administered.  

She pointed out that the Pfizer vaccine was required to be stored at extremely low temperatures. Therefore, those were initially applied to healthcare workers younger in age.

The study included people from all age groups. However, the AstraZeneca vaccine was rolled out to older groups of people who could not visit the main centers.

Can UK go back to normal life soon?

According to Nick Triggle, a mutating virus first triggers the unprotectedness from the same. This, in turn, means people might not get complete protection from vaccine doses. Vaccine manufacturing companies kept the original strain during their trial and error process to produce one. 

The expectation of experts that the AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID vaccines offer a better degree of safety against the virus post the second dose is very comforting. But what can the be insinuation of a low first dose efficiency mean for the Indian variant?

Provided that this variant is soon to become a predominant variant in the UK, people must get their second shot. A more difficult question to address would be the speed of going back to everyday life.

The ability of the virus to dodge the vaccine even by the slightest would disclose its transmissibility rate. There are other biological reasons as well that contribute to the transmissibility of the variant. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that there will be an increase in cases and hospital admissions; the safety that vaccines provide against significant illnesses will be immensely higher than their capacity to stop mild infections. 

Although the variant in India provides the virus an upper hand, it doesn’t imply that the vaccines will not win. The research included data regarding all ages to envelope the span since the emergence of the variant of India. 

The PHE said that there wasn’t enough information to assume the vaccine’s efficacy against the severe consequences of the Indian variant. 

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What is the current vaccination update in the UK?

According to Dr. Jamie Lopez Bernal, who is a consultant medical epidemiologist at PHE and the lead author of the research, the amount of conviction in the information from the initial dose of vaccine is higher than the second one. This is because a higher number of people took the first dose compared to the ones fully vaccinated.

According to Professor Susan Hopkins, PHE’s Covid-19 strategic response director, the information was clean and was leaping towards the correct direction. Over 37 million people in the UK have had their first dose of vaccination, and 22 million people have had their second dose. 

According to the PHE analysis, the vaccination program prevented almost 13,000 deaths and 39,100 hospitalizations till May 9 in the UK.

Over 1.3 million people in England have become enrolled users of an application developed by the NHS. The app is a form of proof to

ensure that a particular person has taken the vaccine. They increased their user base to 4.8 million now. However, this NHS application is different from the Covid-19 contact-tracing one.