Re:South African variant can break through Pfizer vaccine, I...
by mulvya on Sunday April 11, 2021 @02:18AM
(#26767885)
> Let's also say that it is somewhat effective against the variant so the performance of the vaccinated immune system is actually better than the naive immune system.
This is begging the question.
> Because of the selection effect, you could have a higher variant prevalence compared to regular COVID-19 in the vaccinated population
They are measuring the prevalence of the variant between vaccinated and control groups of similar size, not the share of variants within the vaccinated groups.
This does not mean that the performance is hindered. It just means that there is a larger immune system performance differential.
Here is how it might work.
The regular COVID-19 is highly prevalent, the variant has much less prevalent. The vaccine is highly effective against regular COVID-19. Let's also say that it is somewhat effective against the variant so the performance of the vaccinated immune system is actually better than the naive immune system.
Because of the selection effect, you could have a higher variant prevalence compared to regular COVID-19 in the vaccinated population, even though the vaccine actually improves the peformance of the immune system with regards to the variant.