Pfizer Study Suggests COVID Vaccine Works Against Different Strains.
Pfizer and researchers from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston teamed up for the study.
They tested one modification to the spike protein that COVID-19 variants in both the U.K. and South Africa share.
This mutation, called N501Y, is thought to make the virus more contagious.
As part of the study, blood samples from 20 people who've received the vaccine were analyzed.
Antibodies in those blood samples were able to fend off the particular mutation.
However, the strain discovered in South Africa has an additional mutation, called E484K, that needs to be tested.
It is common for viruses to mutate.
Vaccines can be adjusted to remain effective.
It was a very reassuring finding that at least this mutation, which was one of the ones people are most concerned about, does not seem to be a problem, Pfizer chief scientific officer Dr. Philip Dormitzer, via Associated Press
