In a statement, the two companies said the “small
differences” detected in tests comparing the original virus and the recent
versions “are unlikely to lead to a significant reduction in the effectiveness
of the vaccine”.
While the findings indicated no need for a new vaccine to
tackle the new strains, Pfizer and BioNTech said they would respond if there
was evidence that the variants could defeat their current vaccine.
They would continue to monitor their vaccine’s “real-world
effectiveness”, including against new strains, they said.
“Pfizer and BioNTech believe that the flexibility of
BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA vaccine platform is well suited to develop new
vaccine variants if required,” they said.
Daily global deaths from Covid-19 topped 18,000 for the
first time Wednesday, with vaccines seen as the only real chance of returning
to some form of normality.
-AFP
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