Pfizer vaccine - The African Mirror

May

2021

‘It’s going to change our country’: South Africa starts vaccinating over-60s

AKHONA MATSHOBA and SHAFIEK TASSIEM HOPE and excitement gripped the Munsieville care home in the South African mining city of Krugersdorp yesterday when people over the age of 60 were called to receive the COVID-19 vaccine for the first time. "It's going to change our country for the better," Caroline Nicholls, 64, a judge, told Reuters while waiting to get her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. "I am very excited to finally be here today," said Ellen Segope, 65, a pensioner who lives nearby. In Cape Town, celebrated anti-apartheid activist and cleric Desmond Tutu was among those vaccinated. South…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

‘South African variant may evade protection from Pfizer vaccine’

COVID-19

MAAYAN LUBELL THE coronavirus variant discovered in South Africa may evade the protection provided by Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine to some extent, a real-world data study in Israel found, though its prevalence in the country is very low and the research has not been peer-reviewed. The study, released on Saturday, compared almost 400 people who had tested positive for COVID-19, 14 days or more after they received one or two doses of the vaccine, against the same number of unvaccinated patients with the disease. It matched age and gender, among other characteristics. The South African variant, B.1.351, was found to make…

Mar

2021

By The African Mirror

Rwanda becomes 1st African nation to use Pfizer vaccine

COVID-19

CLEMENT UWIRIGIYIMANA RWANDAN began its COVID-19 vaccine campaign on Friday, becoming the first nation in Africa to use pharmaceutical company Pfizer's doses that require ultra-cold storage. Authorities began transporting Pfizer and AstraZeneca shots round the hilly nation of 12 million people after they arrived earlier this week, using helicopters to reach far-flung parts. "This means that I will die when God wants because the coronavirus cannot kill me now," 90-year-old Stephanie Nyirankuriza said, leaning on a walking stick after her shot at a health centre just east of the capital Kigali. As in most nations, health workers and the elderly…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

South Africa backs Pfizer vaccine

COVID-19

ALEXANDER WINNING TWO of the South African government's top advisers on COVID-19 backed Pfizer's vaccine on Friday, despite a study earlier this week showing that the dominant local coronavirus variant may reduce protective antibodies it triggers. The country is counting on the Pfizer shot, developed with German partner BioNTech, to step up its vaccination programme after administering its first Johnson & Johnson doses on Wednesday. Professor Barry Schoub AstraZeneca vaccinations are on hold after a small local trial found the shot offered minimal protection against mild to moderate illness from the 501Y.V2 variant first identified late last year. The laboratory…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Pfizer vaccine only slightly less effective against key S.African mutations

COVID-19

PFIZER Inc and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine appeared to lose only a small bit of effectiveness against an engineered virus with three key mutations from the new coronavirus variant found in South Africa, according to a laboratory study conducted by the U.S. drugmaker. The study by Pfizer and scientists from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), which has not yet been peer-reviewed, showed a less than two-fold reduction in antibody titer levels, indicating the vaccine would likely be effective in neutralizing a virus with the so-called E484K and N501Y mutations found in the South African variant. The study was conducted…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Norway says advice on use of Pfizer vaccine is unchanged

COVID-19

NORWAY does not plan to change its policy on the use of Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine following reports of deaths in highly frail recipients after the inoculation was given. BioNTech had earlier say that "Norwegian Health Authorities have now changed (their) recommendation in relation to vaccination of the terminally ill". But the company later retracted the statement following clarification from Norway. The Nordic country is currently vaccinating residents of care homes, including those with serious underlying diseases. COVID-19 vaccines Of these 23 reports, 13 have been looked into by Norwegian health authorities. These concerned individuals who were described as…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

UK warns people with serious allergies to avoid Pfizer vaccine after two adverse reactions

COVID-19

ALISTAIR SMOUT BRITAIN’S medicine regulator has advised that people with a history of significant allergies do not get Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine after two people reported adverse reactions on the first day of rollout. Starting with the elderly and frontline workers, Britain began mass vaccinating its population on Tuesday, part of a global drive that poses one of the biggest logistical challenges in peacetime history. National Health Service medical director Stephen Powis said the advice had been changed after two NHS workers reported anaphylactoid reactions associated with receiving the vaccine. They were among the thousands who received the shot on Tuesday.…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

British grandma is 1st in world to get Pfizer vaccine outside trial

NEWS

KATE HOLTON MARGARET Keenan, a 90-year-old grandmother from Northern Ireland, today became the first person in the world to receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine shot outside of a trial as Britain began vaccinating its population. An early riser, Keenan received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at her local hospital in Coventry, central England, on Tuesday morning at 0631 GMT, a week before she turns 91. A video showed Keenan being pushed in a wheelchair out of the ward while nursing staff clad in protective gear lined the corridor to applaud and cheer, in an echo of moving video clips released through the…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

With scant power or freezers, Pfizer vaccine brings little cheer to coronavirus-hit India

WORLD

ANNIE BANERJI DESPITE hopes raised by Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, it will take huge efforts for India to defeat the coronavirus, with its 1.3 billion population and the world's second-highest caseload. Pfizer Inc's Monday announcement that initial trials showed their experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective sparked cheer across the world, scarred by a pandemic has killed 1.2 million people and infected 50.7 million. But the Pfizer vaccine needs to be stored at temperatures matching an Antarctic winter - a logistical nightmare for India with heatwaves exceeding 50 degrees Celsius (122°F), few ultra-cold freezers, patchy power and a largely…