BioNTech vaccine should be effective in protecting against certain Covid-19 strains, medical experts in Hong Kong say
- The German-made doses should protect people from the variants found in Britain and Brazil, according to experts advising government
- But not enough data available on the Sinovac shots from China to reach same conclusion, they say
But the data on the Sinovac shots produced in mainland China was insufficient to reach such a conclusion, they said on Thursday.
The experts urged residents to inoculate themselves against the virus and help reach herd immunity. Progress was slowed after the deaths of seven people who received the Sinovac shook public confidence in the doses, even though authorities have not found any direct links between the shots and the fatalities.
Professor Lau Yu-lung, chairman of the scientific committee on vaccine preventable diseases at the Centre for Health Protection under the Department of Health, said data based on observations and laboratory results showed BioNTech had proven effective in protecting against the Britain and Brazil variants of the coronavirus.
Lau said data showed the jab was not as effective against the South African strain as it was for the other two strains, although “it is still effective”.
Not enough data was available about the effectiveness of the Sinovac jabs against the variants, while AstraZeneca shots, developed by British-Swedish firm AstraZeneca with Oxford University, had proven effective for both the Britain and Brazil variants but ineffective against the South African one.