COVID vaccines still work against mutant, researchers find
New research from France adds to evidence that widely used COVID-19 vaccines still offer strong protection against a coronavirus mutant that is spreading rapidly around the world and now is the most prevalent variant in the United States.
The Delta variant is surging through populations with low vaccination rates.
Researchers from France’s Pasteur Institute reported new evidence yesterday that full vaccination is critical.
In laboratory tests, blood from several dozen people given their first dose of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines “barely inhibited” the Delta variant, the team reported in the journal Nature.
But weeks after getting their second dose, nearly all had what researchers deemed an immune boost strong enough to neutralise the Delta variant — even if it was a little less potent than against earlier versions of the virus.
The French researchers also tested unvaccinated people who had survived a bout of the coronavirus, and found their antibodies were four-fold less potent against the new mutant. But a single vaccine dose dramatically boosted their antibody levels — sparking cross-protection against the Delta variant and two other mutants, the study found.
That supports public health recommendations that COVID-19 survivors get vaccinated rather than relying on natural immunity.
The lab experiments add to real-world data that the Delta variant’s mutations aren’t evading the vaccines most widely used in Western countries, but underscore that it’s crucial to get more of the world immunized before the virus evolves even more.
Researchers in Britain found two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, for example, are 96 per cent protective against hospitalisation with the Delta variant and 88 per cent effective against symptomatic infection. That finding was echoed last weekend by Canadian researchers, while a report from Israel suggested protection against mild Delta infection may have dipped lower, to 64 per cent.
Whether the fully vaccinated still need to wear masks in places where the Delta variant is surging is a growing question.
