How Pfizer COVID vaccine cuts risk of Delta infection

The antibody that neutralised all four variants of concern -- as well as three additional variants tested separately -- was called 2C08. In animal experiments, 2C08 also protected hamsters from disease caused by every variant tested: the original variant, delta and a mimic of beta.

New York: Despite causing a surge in infections that has resulted in thousands of hospitalisations and deaths, the Delta variant of COVID-19 is not particularly good at evading the antibodies generated by the Pfizer vaccine, according to a study. The findings, published in the journal Immunity, help explain why vaccinated people have largely escaped the worst of the delta surge. Researchers at Washington University in the US extracted antibody-producing cells from three people who had received the Pfizer vaccine. They grew the cells in the laboratory and obtained from them a set of 13 antibodies that target the original strain that began circulating last year.