After 6 months: Protection against COVID waning among vaccinated people, says study

LONDON: Protection against the coronavirus is waning among those who have received both shots of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, a new UK study has found, foreign media reported.

An analysis from the UK’s ZOE Covid app study of over 400,000 people who had received both shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, showed that it was 88% effective in protecting against the coronavirus a month after receiving both shots. However, its effectiveness fell to 74% five or six months after receiving both doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

In the same study, an analysis of over 700,000 people who had received both doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine showed its effectiveness fell from 77% after a month to 67% at the four to five month mark.

The data was collected after May 26, when the delta variant became the dominant strain, said Tim Spector, who is running the ongoing ZOE Covid app study.

Meanwhile, Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) has completed the real-time review process needed for a full approval for its COVID-19 vaccine in people aged 18 years and above, the company said on Wednesday.

The news comes within days of US regulators granting full approval to Pfizer Inc (PFE.N)/BioNTech SE’s (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine, developed with the same mRNA technology as Moderna’s. Moderna’s completed submission includes data from a late-stage study that showed 93% vaccine efficacy, even though six months after administration of the second dose, the company said in a statement.

Earlier, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson are reporting enhanced disease-fighting response from booster shots, an encouraging development in light of vaccines’ diminished effectiveness over time as the delta variant of the coronavirus has turbocharged a fourth wave of infections in the US, foreign media reported.

Pfizer and German partner BioNTech plan to submit this week their COVID-19 booster shot for FDA approval for people over 16, the companies said in a joint statement. Phase 3 trial data shows a third dose of their vaccine – called Comirnaty – produced more than three times the neutralizing antibodies against the coronavirus compared with a second dose, the companies said. On Monday, their COVID-19 vaccine became the first one to receive full FDA approval.

Meanwhile, the search into how the Covid-19 pandemic started is closing, senior scientists have said. A team appointed by the World Health Organization to find the cause of the outbreak say the process has stalled.

And further delay could make crucial studies “biologically impossible”. In an article in the scientific journal Nature, they call on political and scientific leaders to expedite those studies “while there is still time”. “Because of the way the world is changing - population increase, crowding and more interaction between humans and animals, we need to learn where things go wrong and how we can avoid that in the future,” she said.