Science

Pfizer Preliminary Study Finds the Company’s Vaccine Effective Against U.K. COVID Mutation

DOUBLE IMMUNITY

The virus variant is more contagious than the original and has brought Britain to its knees.

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Fredrik Lerneryd/Getty

A new study has found that the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine effectively prevents infections of COVID-19’s more contagious variant first identified in the United Kingdom. The drug company commissioned the study from the University of Texas of the so-called N501Y mutation, though the results have not yet been peer-reviewed. In total, the Pfizer vaccine was found to be effective against 16 versions of the virus. The mutated virus has brought the United Kingdom to its knees, inducing a second stringent lockdown, and has spread to the United States as well as dozens of other countries. The United States has recorded more than 21 million cases of COVID-19, including roughly 250,000 on Thursday alone, and over 360,000 deaths.

Read it at Reuters

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