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India has been one of the worst affected by the coronavirus, and they were in a bit of distress, especially when they discovered that a new strain had been identified in the region. That being said, there has been some good news as the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines have shown to be quite effective against the Indian variant of the virus. After one dose, the vaccine was only 33% effective against the virus, but it offers much better protection after the second dose.
However, one dose of the vaccine proved to be 50% effective against the Kent variant; doctors recommend that you get vaccinated as soon as possible to avoid hospital admission and even death.
The researchers who conducted this study said that the Moderna vaccine that was also used in the UK; however, the numbers were too small to be included in the research. All in all, everyone must get both doses if they want to be protected from the virus.
The UK government came under fire for putting India on the red travel list. However, representatives defended their move by saying that anyone coming from the red list countries will have to quarantine and test themselves for the virus; they said that proper systems would be set up to ensure everything goes according to plan.
According to the evidence given in the study, the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective at stopping the Indian variant of the virus two weeks after the second dose was administered. The AstraZeneca vaccine was only 60% effective against the Indian variant; however, it was 66% effective against the Kent variant.
The difference in effectiveness might be explained by the fact that the rollout of the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine was approved before AstraZeneca. Further analysis shows that the AstraZeneca vaccine takes a little longer to provide maximum protection after the second dose is administered.
The biggest problem that we now face is that as the virus keeps on changing, the requirements of the vaccine to be effective will also change. And if we want to keep the virus at bay, we recommend that we take our vaccinations seriously. If you haven’t gotten vaccinated yet, we recommend that you do it as soon as possible.
There is also talk about the possibility of needing booster doses after some time. The exact time frame is not known, but experts believe that since the virus is changing, there is a high chance that people who have been vaccinated will need to get booster vaccines in the future to stay protected against the virus.
If people forget to take the booster dose, there is a significant chance that they will be at a much higher risk of contracting the virus.
