- Live updates: Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have reduced effectiveness against South African variant, new studies show The Washington Post
- New funding for testing, Biden plan to reopen schools, South Africa distributes J&J vaccine: Latest 11Alive
- Lab studies suggest Pfizer, Moderna vaccines can protect against coronavirus variant CNN
- Iqbal Survé: Greater co-operation with BRICS countries will help SA navigate Covid-19 storm IOL
- OPINION | SA on the right track as it prepares to acquire vaccines from fellow BRICS members SABC News
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Studies
Pfizer, Moderna vaccines can protect against coronavirus variant, lab studies suggest
For the study, researchers at Pfizer and the University of Texas Medical Branch genetically engineered versions of the virus to carry some of the mutations found in B.1.351. They tested them against blood samples taken from 15 people who had received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine as part of a clinical trial.
While the blood serum samples produced less neutralizing antibody activity, it was still enough to neutralize the virus, they wrote in a letter to the journal. This is in line with other studies. And it’s well within what is seen with other viruses, one of the researchers said.
“Although we do not yet know exactly what level of neutralization is required for protection against COVID-19 disease or infection, our experience with other vaccines tells us that it is likely that the Pfizer vaccine offers relatively good protection against this new variant,” Scott Weaver, director of the Institute for Human Infections and Immunity at the University of Texas Medical Branch and an author of the study, told CNN.
“The reduction in the levels of neutralization against the South African variant of about 2/3 is fairly small compared to variations in neutralization levels generated by vaccines against other viruses that have even more variability in their protein sequences than SARS-CoV-2,” Weaver added.
Pfizer said there is no evidence in real life that the variant escapes the protection offered by its vaccine. “Nevertheless, Pfizer and BioNTech are taking the necessary steps, making the right investments, and engaging in the appropriate conversations with regulators to be in a position to develop and seek authorization for an updated mRNA vaccine or booster once a strain that significantly reduces the protection from the vaccine is identified,” Pfizer said in a statement.
Separately, a team at the National Institutes of Health and Moderna published a letter in the same journal outlining findings from an experiment they reported last month. They also reported a reduction in the antibody response to viruses genetically engineered to look like the B.1.351 variant — but not enough of a reduction to make the vaccine work any less effectively.
“Despite this reduction, neutralizing titer levels with (the variant discovered in South Africa) remain above levels that are expected to be protective,” the company said in a statement.
They found no reduction in efficacy against a variant first seen in the UK and known as B.1.1.7.
Fauci says studies suggest vaccines slow virus spread
A growing body of evidence suggests that the Covid-19 vaccine can slow the spread of the coronavirus, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Wednesday.
Whether vaccination can prevent transmission of the virus is “the looming question,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a White House coronavirus response team briefing. “If a person gets infected despite being vaccinated — we refer to that as a ‘breakthrough’ infection — does that person have the capability of transmitting to another person?”
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
“There have been some studies that are pointing in a very favorable direction,” he said, adding that these studies will have to be corroborated by additional research.
Fauci highlighted two recent studies that looked at a person’s viral load — that is, how much virus he or she has in the body — and transmissibility.
One study from Spain, published Feb. 2 in The Lancet, found a direct correlation between viral load and transmissibility. The higher the viral load, the greater the transmissibility of the virus.
That’s in line with what years of research on HIV have shown: there’s a direct link between the viral load in someone’s blood and the likelihood that individual will transmit HIV to a sexual partner, Fauci said.
For SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, researchers are focused on how much virus is found the nasopharynx, the upper part of the throat behind the nose that’s reached with a long, skinny swab.
The second study Fauci described — a paper that has not undergone peer review that was posted last week to the preprint server medRvix — looked at coronavirus infections in Israel, a country with very high rates of vaccination.
That paper found that individuals who were infected after receiving their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination had a “markedly diminished” viral load compared with unvaccinated people.
It’s another example of “scientific data starting to point to the fact that [the vaccine] … has very important implications from a public health standpoint for interfering and diminishing the dynamics of the outbreak,” Fauci said.
Download the NBC News app for full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
Dr. John Anthony Vanchiere, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at Ochsner LSU Health Shreveport in Louisiana, said that the two studies “go nicely together hand in hand.”
“We know that it is the case for flu and other respiratory viruses that higher viral loads are associated with increased transmission,” he said. “The fact that the vaccine reduces the viral load, even shortly after getting your first dose, it’s very important data to have.”
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are currently studying how vaccination affects transmissibility, Fauci said.
“The bottom line message,” he said, is “when your turn to get vaccinated comes up, get vaccinated. It’s not only good for you and your family and community, it will have a very important impact on the dynamics of the outbreak in our country.”
Follow NBC HEALTH on Twitter & Facebook.
Akshay Syal contributed.
Black coffee can be good for your heart, studies show
Drinking one or more cups of plain, leaded coffee a day was associated with a long-term reduced risk of heart failure, according to a review of diet data from three major studies using analytic tools from the American Heart Association.
The benefit did not extend to decaffeinated coffee. Instead, the analysis found an association between decaf coffee and an increased risk for heart failure.
Heart failure occurs when a weakened heart fails to supply the body’s cells with enough blood to get the oxygen needed to keep the body functioning properly. People with heart failure suffer fatigue and shortness of breath and have trouble walking, climbing stairs or other daily activities.
“While unable to prove causality, it is intriguing that these three studies suggest that drinking coffee is associated with a decreased risk of heart failure and that coffee can be part of a healthy dietary pattern if consumed plain, without added sugar and high fat dairy products such as cream,” said registered dietitian Penny Kris-Etherton, immediate past chairperson of the American Heart Association’s Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Health Council Leadership Committee, in a statement. She was not involved with the research.
Massive data analysis
The study, published Tuesday in the AHA journal Circulation: Heart Failure, analyzed self-reported dietary information from the original Framingham Heart Study. That study, which began in 1948, enrolled over 5,000 people with no diagnosed heart disease who lived in Framingham, Massachusetts. The study has followed those people and their offspring for 72 years over three generations.
The new study used state-of-the-art analytic tools from the AHA’s Precision Medicine Platform to compare the Framingham data to the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, a longitudinal, multisite, biracial study, and the Cardiovascular Health Study, a 10-year-long study of cardiovascular risk in adults over 65.
Altogether, the studies provided dietary information on more than 21,000 adult Americans.
Compared with people who didn’t drink coffee, the analysis found the risk of heart failure over time decreased between 5% and 12% for each cup of coffee consumed each day in the Framingham Heart and the Cardiovascular Health studies.
The risk of heart failure remained the same for drinking no coffee or one cup per day in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. But when people drank two or more cups of black coffee a day the risk decreased by about 30%, the analysis found.
“The association between caffeine and heart failure risk reduction was surprising,” said senior author Dr. David Kao, medical director of the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Aurora.
“Coffee and caffeine are often considered by the general population to be ‘bad’ for the heart because people associate them with palpitations, high blood pressure, etc. The consistent relationship between increasing caffeine consumption and decreasing heart failure risk turns that assumption on its head,” Kao said in a statement.
A bit of caution
All of these studies were done with drinking black coffee. However, many people add dairy, sugars, flavors or nondairy creamers that are high in calories, added sugar and fat. That likely negates any heart-healthy benefits, warns the AHA.
Also be aware that in most studies a cup of coffee is only 8 ounces; the standard “grande” cup at the coffee shop is double that at 16 ounces.
How you brew your coffee also has health consequences. Unlike filter coffee makers, a French press, Turkish coffee or the boiled coffee popular in Scandinavian countries fails to catch a compound called cafestol in the oily part of coffee. Cafestol can increase your bad cholesterol or LDL (low-density lipoproteins).
Caffeine can be dangerous if consumed in excess by certain populations, research has shown. High levels of coffee consumption (more than 4 cups) during pregnancy was associated with low birth weight, preterm birth and stillbirths in a 2017 study. For women with a higher likelihood of bone fractures, coffee raised that risk; the same was not true for men.
Past studies also suggested people with sleep issues or uncontrolled diabetes should check with a doctor before adding caffeine to their diets.
And, of course, these benefits do not apply to kids — children and adolescents should not drink colas, coffees, energy drinks or other beverages with any amount of caffeine, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“The bottom line: enjoy coffee in moderation as part of an overall heart-healthy dietary pattern that meets recommendations for fruits and vegetables, whole grains, low-fat/non-fat dairy products, and that also is low in sodium, saturated fat and added sugars,” Kris-Etherton said.
“Also, it is important to be mindful that caffeine is a stimulant and consuming too much may be problematic – causing jitteriness and sleep problems,” she said.
Studies of South African Coronavirus Strain Raise Concerns About Immune Response
JOHANNESBURG—Three new laboratory studies are raising concerns that the immune response triggered by a Covid-19 infection or vaccination may be less effective at protecting against the new strain of the coronavirus that first emerged in South Africa.
The findings come from experiments done in the laboratory and only look at certain elements of a body’s immune response. Still, they reinforce the possibility that vaccine makers and regulators will need to update Covid-19 vaccines as the virus evolves.
A fourth study, conducted by scientists at BioNTech SE and Pfizer Inc. and published by the companies, showed that their vaccine successfully neutralized a variant that was initially detected in the U.K. That study didn’t include the South African strain.
The U.K. variant has already spread to many other countries, including the U.S.
More than a year into the pandemic, the discovery of new variants that appear to have made the virus more contagious is forcing researchers to adapt their understanding of the coronavirus that causes Covid-19. One concern, researchers said, is that the new strains are emerging in countries where a significant percentage of people have already built up an immune response to earlier variants after getting Covid-19.