#Moderna may be superior to Pfizer against Delta strain: study

Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine may be more effective against the Delta variant than Pfizer, according to a new study.

Researchers found the effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine against COVID dropped considerably last month as the Delta strain took hold, according to two reports published on medRxiv on Sunday that are yet to be peer-reviewed.

The Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness dropped to 42 percent in July, down from 76 percent in early 2021, the study found.

Over the same period, the study found the effectiveness of Moderna’s vaccine fell to 76 percent from 86 percent.

The study included more than 50,000 patients in the Mayo Clinic Health System, which runs hospitals in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin.

Both vaccines still remain effective at preventing hospitalizations due to COVID, according to Dr. Venky Soundararajan, who led the Mayo study.

However, he said a Moderna booster shot may be necessary soon for those who received either the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines earlier this year.

It comes as COVID cases spike with the United States seeing 100,000 new cases per day for the first time since February.

While new cases hit lows of 11,000 per day in June, the alarming surge is being driven by the highly transmissible Delta variant, which first emerged in India in December.

The Delta strain now accounts for about 93 percent of new infections in the US, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Cases are particularly exploding in southern states where some experts say vaccination rates are lagging.

Louisiana currently has the nation’s highest infection rate, followed by Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Oklahoma and Missouri, according to federal figures.

Officials in several states have said spiraling infection rates are rapidly filling up hospital beds and threatening to overwhelm health care systems.

With Post wires