SHARES
Globally there are deep waves of surging COVID-19 infections attributable to the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Despite many unknowns as the coronavirus evolves, preliminary data from various ongoing studies investigated the extent of protection by vaccines against the Delta variant, including reports from Southeast Asia.
Effectiveness of Vaccines against the Delta Variant
Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine
From recent studies published in Nature, two doses of vaccine have an efficacy of 64-96% against the Delta variant. However, new data from Israel reported lower efficacy compared to previous virus variants.
Also, in another Public Health England study, the Pfizer vaccine protection against symptomatic infections was 36% for the first dose and 88% after the second dose.
Moderna Covid-19 Vaccine
A non-peer reviewed Canadian study reported effectiveness of 72% from one dose and suggested similar protection as the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine
A Public Health England study data showed that two doses are 92% effective against hospitalisation from Delta variant infections and showed no deaths among those vaccinated.
Additionally, the protection against symptomatic infections are 30% for the first dose, 67% after the second dose.
Sinovac Vaccine
Guangdong, a province in China, had the country’s biggest cluster of Delta cases since May 2021, but was quickly brought under control by June 22 with no Delta variant cases reported since then. The main measures were rapid vaccination and effective ring fencing.
Sinovac Biotech says the antibodies induced by their vaccine can still neutralise the delta variant in lab studies.
Also, it is worthwhile to note that studies on protection from the virus by Prof. Cowling, hailing from the WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease and Hong Kong University, estimated that the effectiveness of inactivated virus vaccines (eg. Sinovac) against the Delta variant could be reduced lower by 20% compared to the original virus strain.
Sinopharm Vaccine
Stateowned Sinopharm has said, citing a study in Sri Lanka, that it’s inactivated virus vaccine is 68% effective against the delta variant
Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
The interim result from a study of 20 people suggests a strong immune response after 8 months. However, a meaningful result would require a much larger study population than the 20 person studied here.
A word from GetDocSays
In essence, all COVD-19 vaccines provide many forms of protection, including against the Delta variant. Importantly, whether Delta variant or otherwise, vaccines reduce risk of infection, serious symptoms, hospitalisation and death. So do your part to end the pandemic! Everyone, vaccinate to protect yourself and your loved ones!!
References:
“BNT162b2-elicited neutralization of B.1.617 and other SARS-CoV-2 variants” -nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03693-y
“Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against variants of concern, Canada” https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.06.28.21259420v1.full.pdf July 3 2021
“Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against hospital admission with the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant” https://bit.ly/3hTmrWO June 14 2021
“Neutralizing antibody levels are highly predictive of immune protection from symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection” – https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01377-8 May 17 2021
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by Wong Mei Chan
View all articles by Wong Mei Chan.
