JERUSALEM – The coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa may “carry through” Pfizer / BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to some degree, according to a real-world data study in Israel, although its prevalence in the country is low and research has not been peer-reviewed.
The study, published Saturday, compared nearly 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after receiving one or two doses of the vaccine against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched, among other things, age and gender.
The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make up approx. 1% of all COVID-19 cases across all the people examined, according to the study conducted by Tel Aviv University and Israel’s largest health provider, Clalit.
However, among patients who had received two doses of the vaccine, the prevalence rate of the variant was eight times higher than that of the unvaccinated – 5.4% versus 0.7%.
This suggests that the vaccine is less effective against the South African variant compared to the original coronavirus and a variant that was first identified in the UK and which has come to cover almost all COVID-19 cases in Israel, the researchers said.
“We found a disproportionately higher proportion of the South African variant among people vaccinated with a different dose compared to the non-vaccinated group. This means that the South African variant is to some extent able to break through the vaccine protection, ”said Tel Aviv University’s Adi Stern.
However, the researchers warned that the study had only a small sample size of people infected with the South African variant because of its rarity in Israel.
They also said the research was not intended to derive the overall vaccine efficacy against any variant, as it only looked at people who had already tested positive for COVID-19, not with the overall infection rates.
Pfizer and BioNTech could not immediately be reached for comment outside business hours.
The companies said on April 1 that their vaccine was about 91% effective in preventing COVID-19, citing updated trial data that included participants inoculated for up to six months.
Regarding the South African variant, they said that among a group of 800 experimental volunteers in South Africa, where B.1.351 is prevalent, there were nine cases of COVID-19, all of which occurred among participants receiving placebo. Of these nine cases, six were among individuals infected with the South African variant.
Some previous studies have shown that the Pfizer / BioNTech shot was less potent against the B.1.351 variant than against other coronavirus variants, but still offered robust defense.
While the results of the study may be of concern, the low prevalence of the South African tribe was encouraging, according to Stern.
“Although the South African variant does not break through the vaccine’s protection, it has not spread widely through the population,” Stern said, adding that the British variant may “block” the spread of the South African strain.
Nearly 53% of Israel’s 9.3 million inhabitants have received both doses of Pfizer. Israel has largely reopened its economy in recent weeks, while the pandemic appears to be on the wane, with infection rates, serious illness and hospitalizations falling sharply.
About a third of Israelis are under the age of 16, which means they are still not eligible for the shooting.
