Now for the big Covid-19 test: how well do vaccines work in the real world?

All eyes are on whether the shots cut infections and deaths in the face of new variants such as the Delta strain

Researchers are also keen to see if the jabs can be mixed and matched to improve immune response

Reading Time:7 minutes

Published: 11:00pm, 5 Jul 2021Updated: 1:46pm, 8 Jul 2021

The coronavirus pandemic is entering a critical phase as the most transmissible variant yet hits dozens of countries, driving new surges and making vaccination more urgent. Now the key question is how well the vaccines work.

A handful of vaccines have passed the World Health Organization’s requirements for more than 50 per cent efficacy and to reduce severe disease and hospitalisation.

But scientists are watching to see how well vaccines work in the real world, including how well they reduce the scale and severity of outbreaks in countries with high rates of vaccination.

Jerome Kim, director general of the International Vaccine Institute (IVI) in Seoul, said it was essential to make best use of the existing vaccines.

“We’re trying to move as quickly as we can because the spread of the Delta variant is … a real threat,” he said, adding that real-world research was needed.

Such real-world effectiveness studies, which can take a lot of resources, have largely come from countries like the United States, Britain and Israel, and focused on the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, and AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines.

Now for the big Covid-19 test: how well do vaccines work in the real world?

All eyes are on whether the shots cut infections and deaths in the face of new variants such as the Delta strain Researchers are also keen to see if the jabs can be mixed and matched to improve immune response

All eyes are on whether the shots cut infections and deaths in the face of new variants such as the Delta strain

Researchers are also keen to see if the jabs can be mixed and matched to improve immune response