Novavax vaccine 89% effective on Covid

VACCINES can be adapted with such speed that scientists should be able to “get ahead” of new strains of coronavirus, said the man who headed a vaccine trial for Novavax, which reported its results late on Thursday.

Professor Paul Heath, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme there was reason for optimism that vaccines could keep pace with any new variants. He said the technology with Novavax and other vaccines, is such that scientists can adapt it quickly for new vaccines or bivalent vaccines, where two different strains are joined together in the one vaccine.

“That now can be done at pace so that we can keep up with these variants should they prove to be difficult to prevent with the vaccine that we have at the moment,” he said.

Experts have been deeply worried about the strains found in South Africa and Brazil due to the fact that existing vaccines may not be fully effective against them. The Novavax data shows its vaccine is 89% effective at preventing Covid-19 in a clinical trial in the UK, of more than 15,000 people aged 18-84, of whom 27% were older than 65. More than 50% of cases related to the UK strain of the virus identified in Kent, with the vaccine offering 86% protection against this strain. Against the original strain the vaccine was 96% effective.