South African vaccine adviser backs Pfizer shot after study

Vials labelled “COVID-19 Coronavirus Vaccine” and a syringe are seen in front of the Pfizer logo in this illustration taken February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration/File Photo

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – One of the South African government’s top advisers on COVID-19 vaccines said on Friday that the Pfizer-BioNTech shot was “still a very good vaccine,” despite a study showing the dominant local virus variant may reduce protective antibodies elicited by it.

Barry Schoub, chairman of the Ministerial Advisory Committee on vaccines, told Reuters that the two-thirds reduction in protective antibodies mentioned in the study “means there is quite a significant remnant neutralising potency”.

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