A laboratory study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has revealed that the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine could neutralize a new variant of the coronavirus which is spreading rapidly in Brazil.

Blood obtained from individuals who had been vaccinated could neutralize an engineered version of the coronavirus that carried the same mutations as those on the spike portion of the P.1 variant that was first identified in Brazil. The neutralizing potential was found to be almost equivalent to the vaccine’s effect on a prior less contagious version of the virus.

Earlier, Pfizer had noted in studies that its vaccine could neutralize other variants of the virus that were first detected in the United Kingdom and South Africa. However, the South African variant may diminish the protective antibodies evoked by the vaccine… (Reuters, March 9, 2021)