Study: Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine effective against coronavirus variant detected in India

Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
(Image credit: THOMAS LOHNES/AFP via Getty Images)

Two weeks after the second dose, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was 88 percent effective against symptomatic disease from a coronavirus variant first identified in India that is spreading in the United Kingdom and could soon become the dominant strain there, a study by Public Health England found.

The results, released Saturday, are similar to the 93 percent effectiveness against another variant first identified in the U.K. last year, suggesting the vaccine still offers significant protection despite fears that the variant discovered in India, which is believed to be more contagious, would be resistant to vaccines. The research was conducted between April 5 and May 16.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.