'New data showing that two COVID-19 vaccines are far less effective in South Africa than in other places they were tested have heightened fears that the coronavirus is quickly finding ways to elude the world’s most powerful tools to contain it.
The U.S. company Novavax reported this week that although its vaccine was nearly 90% effective in clinical trials conducted in Britain, the figure fell to 49% in South Africa — and that nearly all the infections the company analyzed in South Africa involved the B.1.351 variant that emerged there late last year and has spread to the United States and at least 30 other countries.
Johnson & Johnson announced Friday that its new shot was 72% effective against preventing moderate or severe illness in the United States, compared with 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa.
Laboratory tests had suggested that the vaccines authorized in the U.S. — one from Pfizer and BioNTech, the other from Moderna and the National Institutes of Health — trigger a smaller immune response to the South Africa variant."
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"South Africa suspends Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout after researchers report 'minimal' protection against variant
South Africa will suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca after researchers found that it provided "minimal protection" against mild to moderate coronavirus infections caused by the new variant first detected in that country.
Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said Sunday that the rollout will be paused while scientists assess the data and determine a way forward. Officials had been eager to begin vaccinating health-care workers with the shots after 1 million doses arrived last week.
The data, disclosed at a news conference Sunday, showed that once the variant became dominant in the country in November, the vaccine provided no significant protection against illness - though all the cases of disease were mild or moderate. There were 19 cases of covid-19 caused by the variant among people who received the vaccine and 20 cases among people who got a placebo. That suggests that the vaccine was 10% effective, but the difference could have been due to chance."
sharkbok
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Only thinking of themselves being scared of the vaccine.
Once everyone who is going to take the vaccine is vaccinated they will be protected against Covid.
However, those vaccinated can still transmit the virus to anti-vaxxers, meaning they can give it to unprotected people who have not taken the vaccine.