COVID strain can ‘break through’ vaccine according to study

New research has found the South African virus strain could break through the defences offered by the COVID-19 vaccine.

The South African variant of COVID-19 could “break through” the defences of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a new study out of Israel.

It compared 400 people who had received one or two doses of vaccine but had tested positive for the virus after two weeks, with the same number of unvaccinated patients with COVID-19, reported The Straits Time.

The study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, came from the Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest healthcare provider, Clalit, and uncovered the South African variant in about one per cent of cases.

But patients who had received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine had the South African strain — known as the B1351 variant — eight times higher than those unvaccinated.

The research suggests that the Pfizer vaccine is less effective on the South African strain, compared to the original virus and the UK variant, according to the study.

We found a disproportionately higher rate of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a second dose, compared to the unvaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is able, to some extent, to break through the vaccine’s protection, said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern.

However, the researchers cautioned that the study size was small as the South African variant is relatively rare in Israel and only looked at people who had already contracted the virus, rather than overall infection rates.

A recent trial of the Pfizer vaccine with a group of 800 study volunteers in South Africa, found six people infected with the South African variant and all had received the placebo shot.

The South African strain also appears to reduce the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine’s protection from mild to moderate illness.