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Coronavirus pandemic
ChinaScience

Covid-19 vaccine may have significantly cut deaths among elderly despite spread of new strain, Brazil research shows

  • Scientists estimate that that vaccines may have prevented 14,000 deaths among over-80s despite the emergence of a new coronavirus variant
  • Most of those in the study had been given a drug made by the Chinese company Sinovac

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Chinese vaccines play an important role in Brazil’s vaccination drive. Photo: Reuters
Simone McCarthy

A rapid roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations among elderly Brazilians may have significantly reduced deaths even though a new variant of the virus was spreading, new research has found.

The vaccines may have prevented 14,000 deaths among over-80s, according to estimates by researchers at Harvard’s TH Chan School of Public Health and Brazil’s Federal University of Pelotas.

The new study published on the preprint site MedRxiv.org, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, comes as many countries are battling new Covid-19 surges and as scientists are racing to gauge the real-world impact of vaccines.

The findings may also shed light on protection offered from a vaccine by China’s Sinovac Biotech, which accounted for over three-quarters of the doses administered in Brazil and is currently under review for licensing by the World Health Organization.

The vaccine’s efficacy rate of 50.7 in a Brazilian clinical trial only narrowly passed the WHO requirements for preventing symptomatic Covid-19.

But experts say the vaccine’s role in fighting Covid-19 is also linked to how well it can prevent serious disease and death, especially among older adults who are more vulnerable to the disease.

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