Very good news on the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness against the Brazilian variant (considered the worst of the big three).
Since that variant and the South African are so similar, it is not that surprising, because the Pfizer vaccine was already shown to be roughly as effective against the South African variant (although several percentage points less effective than against the most widespread COVID-19 virus, it was still effective enough to have gained authorization at that level).
Pfizer was also extensively tested in Israel’s vaccination program, while the third variant of significance (the UK, or Kent variant) was widespread there. It seems to be highly effective against that variant, by far the most common of the three variants of concern.
PaulR.: That P.1 Variant is a dominant theory for why Brazil has experienced a particularly hard time lately (you asked the other day).
Rampant HIV in Brazil is another reason why the Chinus is severe there.
Doesn’t help that the president there urged everyone to ignore the virus and go about life as usual because it’s basically just the flu. They’re just hitting their second wave and it’s looking increasingly worse every day.
Yeah, turns out there’s a happy medium between shutting down your entire economy and making zero changes to behavior to combat transmission. Israel looking better and better every day.
Noted - thanks for the info.
I did some reading — there are 17 unique mutations in the P1 variant.
(Anyone with solidly sourced info.): What is the thinking now about the stability of the COVID-19 virus vs. typical flus? My guess would be that COVID-19 is “more stable”, but not by a lot.