BATTLEFORWORLD.COM | April 5, 2021: Pfizer/BioNTech is pushing ahead trying to outflank the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, the only COVID-19 vaccine that was peer reviewed in TheLancet journal showing its safety and efficacy in the phase 3 trials. While with the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, only short blurbs highlighting phase 3 data, were written up in TheLancet, and as of April 5, no full report - and only listed as "reports are expected imminently."

US scientists on the medical portal medRxiv published a preprint report last week, and again the report is yet to be peer reviewed, in which it said that the Russian vaccine is less effective in protecting against the South African strain of the COVID-19 coronavirus. The article noted that: "...the Sputnik V vaccine has proved to be the most effective vaccine in terms of neutralizing the activity of various strains — the level of resistance to the most problematic South African variant was significantly higher than that of Pfizer. When it comes to the UK variant, which is the most prevalent in Europe at the moment, no notable decrease in its ability to neutralize the virus has been detected."

The report pushing this data has not yet been subject to the peer review process, also one of the three main authors of the Pfizer article has a clear conflict of interest, as he is a member of the advisory board of Pfizer/BioNtech on coronavirus variants.

The Russian Gamaleya institute said it will publish in May (2021) results of their own research on the efficacy against the South African strain in a peer reviewed scientific journal. The report from the studies will be based on a sample size far larger than that of 12 individuals used by scientists in the United States.

END