U.K. Study : Effectiveness of Pfizer declines faster than AstraZeneca
The effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to decline faster than that of the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab, according to a new study involving over 350,000 people in the UK, which was published on Thursday.
“Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have greater initial effectiveness against new Covid-19 infections, but this declines faster compared with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca,” the researchers at Oxford University said. The team is not linked to the group that developed the vaccine. The same vaccine is used as Covishield in India, where it is the mainstay of the inoculation drive.
The United States is also set to offer booster vaccines to boost antibody levels following concerns over declining effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, especially against new variants of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19.
Evidence of the waning efficacy charges are additionally prone to be taken into consideration by Indian specialists, who are learning the necessity for a booster dose and when that needs to be suggested for folks. At least a dozen international locations have begun or introduced plans to offer booster doses to their folks, together with most distinguished Western international locations.
The results of the study, which is the largest of its kind to date, have not yet been peer-reviewed. The researchers also noted that despite the declines, both vaccines remained effective at preventing infections by any variant, including Delta, while they were also still very effective at preventing hospitalisation or death in the case of a COVID-19 infection.
