UK study: Pfizer, AstraZeneca vaccines offer protection against Delta variant

A British study released on Monday found that the Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines offer solid protection against hospitalization due to the Delta variant.

Public Health England determined that the full two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine offers 96 percent protection against hospitalization, and the AstraZeneca vaccine gives 92 percent protection against hospitalization.

The preprinted analysis concluded that the protection rates are “comparable” to the vaccines’ effectiveness against the Alpha variant.

Another study: Another analysis in Scotland published as a letter Monday in the Lancet medical journal concluded that the vaccines were slightly less effective against infection with the Delta strain than other variants.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was found to give 79 percent against the Delta variant, and the AstraZeneca vaccine provided 60 percent protection against Delta, after both doses.

Why it matters: Concerns have mounted about the effectiveness of the vaccines against the Delta variant as it has become the dominant strain in the U.K. and is spreading across the U.S.

Another recent study from Public Health England found that while two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech or AstraZeneca vaccines was considered effective against symptomatic Delta cases, both vaccines only gave 33 percent protection to partially vaccinated people with one shot.