Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine seems to lose just a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus that carried three crucial mutations from the new coronavirus variant that has been detected in South Africa, suggests a laboratory study.

The study has been conducted by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB). There was less than two-fold decline in antibody titer levels in the study. This suggests that the vaccine would likely neutralize a virus with the E484K and N501Y mutations detected in the South African variant of coronavirus. The findings from the study are limited as it did not assess the full set of mutations that have been seen in the South African variant… (Reuters, January 28, 2021)