A coronavirus vaccine developed by Novavax is more than 89% effective in preventing COVID-19, the company announced Thursday, although it is not as useful in preventing infections of a fast-spreading variant of the virus that first emerged in South Africa. The vaccine is also effective at preventing another, more-contagious variant of the virus that first began spreading in Britain. But Novavax said it noted a loss in efficacy of its vaccine in South Africa after studying a smaller sample of volunteers in the country. (The vaccine’s efficacy rose to 60% among HIV-negative participants.) Erck added that the company would begin testing a new vaccine meant to combat the South African variant, pointing to the changing nature of the virus.

Source: Huffington Post January 29, 2021 02:37 UTC