Concern over vaccine effectiveness on variants
Updated / Sunday, 9 May 2021
11:07
Health workers in a temporarily converted Covid-19 ward in New Delhi
A Covid-19 variant spreading in India is more contagious and may be dodging vaccine protections, contributing to the country s explosive outbreak, the World Health Organization s chief scientist has said.
In an interview with AFP, Soumya Swaminathan warned that the epidemiological features that we see in India today do indicate that it s an extremely rapidly spreading variant .
India registered more than 4,000 Covid-19 deaths in just 24 hours for the first time yesterday, and more than 400,000 new infections.
New Delhi has struggled to contain the outbreak, which has overwhelmed its healthcare system, and many experts suspect the official death and case numbers are a gross underestimate.
Published May 8, 2021 2:46pm Getting Covid vaccines into the arms of the world s population is an international priority but will today s jabs stay effective against virus variants that are spreading across the globe? It is one of the big questions about the pandemic, with Pfizer chief Albert Bourla recently acknowledging that it is likely a booster will be needed to help extend the protection conferred by its vaccine and ward off new variants. A recent study presented a mixed picture. It found that the antibody response of current vaccines could fail against variants. However, a second immune response in the form of killer T cells which attack already infected cells and not the virus itself remained largely intact.
In fight against Covid variants some firms target T cell jabs
Issued on:
08/05/2021 - 07:39 Some researchers are looking at targeting T cells instead of antibodies to create a wider immune response better able to tackle coronavirus variants Christophe ARCHAMBAULT AFP 3 min
Paris (AFP)
Getting Covid vaccines into the arms of the world s population is an international priority but will today s jabs stay effective against virus variants that are spreading across the globe?
It is one of the big questions about the pandemic, with Pfizer chief Albert Bourla recently acknowledging that it is likely a booster will be needed to help extend the protection conferred by its vaccine and ward off new variants.
Some firms target T cell jabs in fight against Covid variants
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Last Updated: May 08, 2021, 11:40 AM IST
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Synopsis
It found that the antibody response of current vaccines could fail against variants. However, a second immune response in the form of killer T cells which attack already infected cells and not the virus itself remained largely intact.
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Getting Covid vaccines into the arms of the world s population is an international priority but will today s jabs stay effective against virus variants that are spreading across the globe?
It is one of the big questions about the pandemic, with