Pfizer vaccine effective against Brazil, UK virus variants, study suggests

(NBC) – The Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine appears to neutralize the variant first identified in Brazil and the United Kingdom.

Scientists developed an engineered version of the variants, known as P.1 and B.1.1.7.

They then tested them against blood samples taken from 15 people two to four weeks after they were given the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

They found that the neutralizing ability was roughly the same when compared to a previous less contagious version of the virus from last year.

However, when they tested the variant first identified in South Africa, known as B.1.351, they found the neutralization was “robust but lower.”