Scientists estimate infectivity of gamma variant of COVID among vaccinated

Currently, too little is known about the gamma variant of the coronavirus (the Brazilian strain) to make precise estimates of its infectivity among the vaccinated, Russian experts said in an interview with RBC, Report informs.

Larisa Popovich, director of the Institute for Health Economics at the Higher School of Economics, told RBC that any virus can penetrate the immune system.

“If a person is vaccinated, then either he will be able to repel the attack, or if the virus breaks through, it will cause little harm. Therefore, no one has ever denied that all vaccinated are 100 percent protected,” she noted.

Earlier, scientists from France and Guiana concluded that the infectivity of the gamma variant reaches 60% among the vaccinated. In May 2021, an outbreak of coronavirus infection was recorded at a gold mine in Guiana. Experts examined 44 workers, of which 25 had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The gamma strain SARS-CoV-2 infected 15 out of 25 miners who had received both shots of the drug.