Covid vaccines available in US ‘are likely’ effective against Indian variant, Dr Fauci says

The Covid-19 vaccines authorised for emergency use in the United States are effective against the coronavirus variant first detected in India, Dr Anthony Fauci said.

Experts have hypothesised that the B.1.617 variant was likely leading to the stark rise in infections, hospitalisations, and deaths in India. The country currently makes up 50 per cent of global Covid-19 cases and 30 per cent of global deaths due to the novel virus, according to the World Health Organisation.

The rise of the new variant sparked concern about how the available vaccines’ effectiveness could be impacted.

But when speaking at a White House Covid-19 briefing on Tuesday, Dr Facui said initial studies indicated the vaccines “are likely” effective and protective against the variant.

In one study, researchers looked at the efficacy of Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines against the variants first detected in India. The findings, which were reported in a pre-print paper on biorxiv.org and have yet to be peer-reviewed, showed both vaccines were still effective.

Serum samples were collected from nine people who recovered from Covid-19, six of whom were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine and three of whom were fully vaccinated with Moderna’s vaccine. Researchers then studied how these samples naturalised lentiviruses that were equipped with the same mutations as the Indian variants, the B.1.617 and B.1.618.

They found that the serum samples still displayed an antibody response against the mutations.

“Thus, there is a good reason to believe that vaccinated individuals will remain protected against the B.1.617 and B.1.618 variants,” the researchers concluded.

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