SAU PAULO – As an aggressive coronavirus strain from the Amazon invades Brazil, an initial study has provided the first evidence that the country ‘s flagship vaccine, CoronaVac in China, may not be as effective against it.
The small-scale study, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, comes as doctors warn of a humanitarian catastrophe in Brazil over the next few weeks, with emergency deaths while the disease is spreading across hospitals across the country.
Researchers from Brazil, the UK and the US found that plasma from eight people who were vaccinated five months ago by CoronaVac had “failed to neutralize effectively” the new Amazonian strain, known as P.1. The study did not show whether CoronaVac can stop people from becoming ill from the opposite, one of the main goals of vaccine campaigns.
Although the sample size of the study was small and required further testing, the fact that all eight samples yielded the same result is a “particular surprise,” indicating that CoronaVac is less capable of eradicating P infections. .1 of versions of the virus previously detected in Brazil, said William de Souza, of the University of São Paulo in Ribeirão Preto, one of the study’s authors.
Sinovac, the Chinese company that makes CoronaVac, did not respond to requests for comment. In an interview with state-sponsored broadcaster CGTN released by Sinovac this week, Chief Executive Yin Weidong said that if necessary, it would take less time to develop a vaccine for the variables than from the beginning. “It’s like this thief we’ve already caught,” he said. “Even if it is mobile, we can use the usual research and production capability to develop a vaccine for the new variant. ”