Pfizer says South African variant 501Y.V2 B.1.351 could reduce vaccine protection by up to 66%

A laboratory study suggests that the South African variant of the coronavirus N501Y.V2 B.1.351 may reduce antibody protection from the Pfizer Inc/BioNTech SE vaccine by two-thirds, and it is not clear if the shot will be effective against the mutation, the companies said on Wednesday

Reuters report

NEJM paper

Image by U.S. Secretary of Defense, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

** This post was originally published on February 18, 2021 **