{"id":113581,"date":"2021-02-19T15:55:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-19T15:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=113581"},"modified":"2021-02-19T15:55:24","modified_gmt":"2021-02-19T15:55:24","slug":"south-africa-advisers-back-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-after-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/south-africa-advisers-back-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-after-study\/","title":{"rendered":"South Africa advisers back Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine after study"},"content":{"rendered":"
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Two of the South African government\u2019s top advisers on COVID-19 backed Pfizer\u2019s vaccine on Friday, despite a study earlier this week showing that the dominant local coronavirus variant may reduce protective antibodies it triggers.<\/p> The country is counting on the Pfizer shot, developed with German partner BioNTech, to step up its vaccination programme after administering its first Johnson & Johnson doses on Wednesday.<\/p>\n AstraZeneca vaccinations are on hold after a small local trial found the shot offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year.<\/p>\n The laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine suggested that the 501Y.V2 variant may reduce protective antibodies elicited by the Pfizer vaccine by two-thirds.<\/p>\n But scientists were quick to caution that because the study\u2019s findings were from a lab it was difficult to judge what they might mean in the real world.<\/p>\n Professor Barry Schoub, chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on vaccines, told Reuters the two-thirds reduction in antibodies mentioned in the study \u201cmeans there is quite a significant remnant neutralising potency, … we feel Pfizer is still a very good vaccine in our context\u201d.<\/p>\n The advisory committee held its regular weekly meeting on Thursday and discussed the study.<\/p>\n While it has not been established in a clinical trial that the Pfizer vaccine protects against the more contagious 501Y.V2 variant, \u201cwe can have a reasonable extrapolation because it\u2019s such a potent stimulator of the immune system\u201d, Schoub said, adding that authorities would monitor closely those who get the Pfizer vaccine.<\/p>\n Health Minister Zweli Mkhize said on Wednesday that South Africa was expecting 500,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine initially and about 7 million doses by June.<\/p>\n \u2018WITHIN TOLERABLE LIMITS\u2019<\/p>\n Professor Salim Abdool Karim, another government adviser, said in a separate interview that the reduction in neutralising activity identified in the study was \u201cwithin the tolerable limits of what we can accept\u201d.<\/p>\n Importantly, he said, it was not yet established that antibodies against the spike protein that the virus uses to infect human cells correlate with protection.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is one of many hypotheses that are currently being investigated,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cWe do not know what it is in these vaccines that\u2019s leading to protection.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked whether he would recommend pausing Pfizer vaccinations for now, he said: \u201cNo, in fact the opposite. This is within our tolerable limits of neutralisation.\u201d<\/p>\n He said there was little point in doing a clinical study to further test the Pfizer vaccine against the local variant because it was already being adapted with a 501Y.V2 insert. \u201cSo if we had to start a clinical study, by the time we get the results they will already have their new vaccine,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n South Africa, with nearly 1.5 million cases and over 48,000 deaths, has recorded almost half the COVID-19 fatalities and over a third of confirmed infections in Africa.<\/p>\n It lagged richer nations in launching its immunisation campaign.<\/p>\n