By Alec Go
An infectious disease specialist on Wednesday (July 21) said all vaccines with emergency use authorization (EUA) in the country remain effective against variants of concern, including the highly transmissible Delta variant.
Dr. Rontgene Solante said during the July 21 Palace briefing that Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, Janssen, and Covaxin are still effective against the Delta variant despite it being 97% transmissible.
“It’s just a matter that some of these vaccines have very good data to show that they are very stable against Delta variant, like Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson [Janssen] vaccine,” Solante said.
The vaccine expert said Sinovac’s CoronaVac “can also withstand the Delta variant,” noting that it is proven effective against the Alpha variant.
“Efficacy may be a bit lower. But again, still highly significant protection with CoronaVac. Same with Sputnik, even with Covaxin which has the same platform as that with Sinovac and Sinopharm, which are still effective against most of these variants of concern,” he said.
Below are eight approved vaccines in the Philippines and their available records versus variants, according to Solante:
- Pfizer: Effective against Alpha, Beta, and Delta
- AstraZeneca: Effective versus Alpha and Delta
- CoronaVac: Effective against Alpha, but decreased neutralizing antibodies for Beta
- Sputnik V: Can “retain strong efficacy” versus severe COVID-19 from variant infection
- Moderna: Effective against Alpha, Beta, and Delta
- Janssen: Effective versus Beta and Delta
- Covaxin: Effective against Alpha and Delta
- Sinopharm: Effective against Beta
The Department of Health (DOH), citing a Public Health England demonstration, said having complete doses of the AstraZeneca jab brings 92% protection against hospitalization and “showed no deaths” due to the Delta variant.
According to Yale Medicine, unvaccinated people are at higher risk of getting infected with the Delta variant. Citing a study in the United Kingdom, the experts said children and adults under fifty have twice the risk of getting infected with Delta.
“When split by age, the weakened link between infection rates and hospitalizations at ages 65 years and above was maintained, while the trends converged below the age of 65 years. The majority of the infections in the younger group occurred in the unvaccinated population or those without a stated vaccine history,” the study stated. – jlo
