Now that a variety of more contagious COVID-19 variants have emerged, it is now being looked at what effect it will have on the effectiveness of previously developed vaccines against the deadly virus.
The efficacy of existing COVID-19 vaccines is not consistent. Other variants of concern are more contagious than other VOCs-even though they are consistently more contagious than normal.
Aside from the fact that some variants are more contagious, the effects of their mutations also include a reduction in the effectiveness of certain COVID-19 vaccines.
Look at the efficacy of COVID-19 vaccine brands depending on the variant and studies done abroad:
Alpha
- Pfizer (90% sa Qatar post-EUA study, 97% vs severe/critical COVID-19)
- Pfizer (94% sa Israeli post-EUA study)
- Pfizer (93% sa UK post-EUA study)
- AstraZeneca (75% in UK pre-EUA study)
- AstraZeneca (66% in UK post-EUA study)
- Novavax (86% in UK pre-EUA study)
Beta
- Pfizer (75% in Qatar post-EUA study, 97.1% vs severe/critical COVID-19)
- Johnson & Johnson (52% in South African pre-EUA study, 73-82% vs severe/critical COVID-19)
- AstraZeneca (10% on “moderate” HIV positive in South African pre-EUA study)
- Novavax (51% in the South African pre-EUA study were HIV positive, 43% both HIV positive and negative)
- Sinopharm (1.6-fold reduced neutralization GMTs; minimal reduction according to an in-vitro study)
How effective are different vaccine brands vs COVID-19 variants?
Gamma
- Johnson & Johnson (66% vs moderate/severe COVID-19 in pre-EUA Brazilian study)
- Johnson & Johnson (73-82% vs servere/critical COVID-19 in pre-EUA Brazilian study)
- Sinovac (78% laban vs mild COVID-19 in pre-EUA Brazilian study)
- Sinovac (100% vs moderate/severe COVID-19 in pre-EUA Brazilian study)
- Sinovac (50.38% overall efficacy rate in pre-EUA Brazilian study)
Delta
- Pfizer (88% in UK post-EUA study)
- Pfizer (96% efficacy vs hospitalization in UK post-EUA study)
- AstraZeneca (60% in UK post-EUA study)
- Pfizer (92% efficacy vs hospitalization in UK post-EUA study)
- Covaxin (2-fold reduction in neutralization antibody)
Based on the World Health Organization, the efficacy of a vaccine against COVID-19 must be at least 50% before it can be said to be “eligible” or useful.
“Banking on these data, I still believe that all of these vaccines, especially vaccines current available in the Philippines, are still effective,” said Dr. Rontgene Solante.
“It’s not something to worry about, because kaonti pa naman ang Delta variant natin.”
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