New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: A new Oxford study published on Thursday (August 19) stated that the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 'declines' faster than the AstraZeneca jab. Researchers at Oxford University have said that two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have greater effectiveness against the Coronavirus initially but it declines faster as compared to the two doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine.
"Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have greater initial effectiveness against new COVID-19 infections, but this declines faster compared with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca," researchers at Oxford University pointed.
The study is based on the results of a survey by Britain's Office for National Statistics that carried out PCR tests from December last year to this month on randomly selected households. It examined two groups of more than 300,000 people over 18 years of age. However, the study has not been peer-reviewed as of now.
In the study, it was found that the dynamics of immunity following second doses differed significantly between Pfizer and AstraZeneca according to the university's Nuffield Department of Medicine. The study states that Pfizer had greater initial effectiveness but saw faster declines in protection against high viral burden and symptomatic infection over a period of several months after full vaccination.
The results suggest that after 4-5 months the effectiveness of both Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines would be similar. Therefore, the long-term effects of these vaccines need to be studied. It also suggests that the protection was higher among those who had already been infected with the virus. Further, the study confirmed that vaccines are less effective against the Delta variant, which was first seen in India.
This comes as Israel is administering booster shots, after giving 58 per cent of the population two shots of the Pfizer jab. The United States is also set to offer booster vaccines to its citizens to boost antibody levels following concerns over the declining effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Posted By: Sugandha Jha
