Pfizer, Moderna jabs effective against variants found in India: Study

Covid19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna work against B1617 variant of the virus that was first identified in India according to a new studyThe study shows that the newly identified SARSCoV2 variants identified in India are neutralised well by antibodies in individuals vaccinated with both vaccinesldquoThis finding predicts that even though the new variants are highly transmissible vaccinated individuals will be protected from infection with the new variantsrdquo senior author Professor Nathaniel R Landau told ANI on TuesdayThe labbased study which was carried out by the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Langone Center is considered preliminaryProfessor Landau and the team of researchers worked on blood samples from people who were vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna vaccinesThe blood drawn was exposed in a lab to engineered pseudovirus particles that contained mutations in the ldquospikerdquo region of the Coronavirus which were particular to either the B1617 or B1618 variants first found in India And this mixture was exposed to labgrown cells to see how many would become infectedResearchers found an almost fourfold reduction in the amount of neutralising antibodies Yshaped proteins the immune system creates to stop pathogens from invading cellsldquoPeople should get vaccinated It will protect them their family members and will slow the emergence of new variantsrdquo Landau assertedPresident Biden announced on Monday that he will export 20 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer In Moderna Inc and Johnson amp Johnson on top of 60 million AstraZeneca doses he had already planned to give to other countriesDuring a Tuesday White House briefing Fauci said initial studies indicated the PfizerBioNTech and Moderna vaccines are ldquoat least partially and probably quite protectiverdquo against serious illness hospitalisation and death ldquoindicating another very strong reason why we should be getting vaccinatedrdquoAlso ReadMumbairsquos daily Covid19 cases rise above 1000 againUS rights leader seeks 60 mn doses for IndiaEminent American civil rights leader Rev Jesse L Jackson is urging President Joe Biden to release 60 million doses of Covid19 vaccines to India which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks of the pandemic in the world Rev Jackson will be joined by a number of prominent Indian leaders in the national capital on Wednesday to make a public appeal to Biden for more humanitarian aid according to a community statementHungary extends state of emergencyThe Hungarian Parliament has again extended a state of emergency that allows the government to impose measures to stop the Covid19 spread The Parliament in Budapest voted on Tuesday to extend the state of emergency until the autumn546512No of new cases reported globally in the past 24 hours164348314Total no of cases worldwide3407240Total no of deaths worldwideThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever