Hyderabad: All Covid vaccines effective against new variants

Hyderabad: The Delta variant is perhaps set to strike after the second wave. People who got vaccinated are worried about the new variant. Doubting the efficiency of the vaccine will help to protect them from the variant or do they need to have another vaccine to be safe. People seem to have doubts over the effectiveness of the vaccine. Will the dose keep them uninfected surely after getting vaccinated? Is vaccinating once is enough for life?

Answering such doubts, consultant pulmonologist, Yashoda Hospitals, Dr Chetan Rao Vaddepally said,"All currently available Covid vaccines provide protection against the newer variants, because of the broad immune response. The vaccine can reduce infection in people, be it asymptomatic or otherwise. This may signal that the virus transmission rate could be reduced."

"Measuring the virus transmission reduction is challenging. Perhaps, a better alternative is to measure the reduction in the infection rate. Between the MRNA vaccine and adenoviral vector

vaccines, the former scores better in reducing the transmission. The MRNA vaccine produce antibodies that prevent viruses from entering the core-cells and blocking further viral replications. The less viral load in the upper and lower respiratory tract the lesser transmission rates," he added.

According to reports, in April this year the UK Public Health Department published data from its larger study about transmission in vaccinated Covid patients and their household contacts. It stated that reduction in transmission rate is about 42-60 per cent. Another study from Israel, a country which is leading globally in vaccination, reported a significant reduction in viral load amongst vaccinated people.

Dr Chetan Rao said getting vaccinated is not only just beneficial for individuals, but also meant to protect people who are not vaccinated or whose immunity is compromised. Even after vaccination, everyone is supposed to wear a mask, wash hands and follow social distancing, as before. Post-vaccination breakthrough infections can happen, but mostly can be asymptomatic and still be spreading the virus to others. Cutting the chain of transmission is the key. Newer Covid variants may make the currently available vaccine less effective, but not totally ineffective.