Mbabane: Pfizer’s vaccine is almost seven times less effective against the Covid-19 variant dominant in SA and less effective against the main strain of the virus, according to a small study in Israel.
Eswatini was expecting 43 950 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the African Union pool. However, the Minister of Health, Lizzie Nkosi could not give the exact date to when the doses were going to arrive in the country.
Currently, the country has been conducting its vaccination programme with the AstraZeneca vaccine only as 32 000 doses were made available by the Republic of India and the COVAX Facility.
The new study, led by scientists at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, tested samples from only 25 people against pseudoviruses, which are engineered copies of viruses that do not replicate, making them harmless.
By replacing proteins in the pseudoviruses with those from SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes Covid-19 – researchers can study how the pathogen infects cells.
The Israeli scientists found the Pfizer vaccine is “moderately compromised” in its ability to produce antibodies that neutralise the B.1.351 variant.
“This conclusion is only partly aligned with recent conclusions from Pfizer reporting its vaccine is almost similarly efficient against the SA variant as wild-type (the original strain) SARS-CoV-2,” they said.
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