Pfizer vaccine incredibly effective against severe disease from UK, South Africa variants

Two new studies published Wednesday demonstrate that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is incredibly effective against severe disease from two COVID-19 variants currently circulating around the world.

The studies examined real-world use of the vaccine in Israel and Qatar and found that inoculation provides a high level of protection from the worst outcomes associated with the B.1.1.7 variant first identified in the UK and the B.1.351 variant first identified in South Africa.

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One of the studies, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which looked at the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against the two variants in Qatar, found that the vaccine was 89.5 percent effective against any documented infection with the UK variant and 75 percent effective against infection with the South Africa variant.

The Qatar study found that the effectiveness against severe disease caused by the variants was "very high" at 97.4 percent.

Researchers from Pfizer and Israel's Health Ministry conducted the second study, which appeared in The Lancet. Red more at i24