Vaccines Seen Protecting Against Brazil Strain in Oxford Study

AstraZeneca Plc’s and Pfizer Inc.’s Covid-19 vaccines may help protect patients from the coronavirus variant that emerged in Brazil, scientists said in a study that may alleviate some concerns about their role in slowing the pandemic.

Laboratory experiments indicate that the shots are about as effective against the Brazil variant as another that surfaced in the U.K., which has already been shown to be halted by existing vaccines, according to data released Thursday by the University of Oxford. Both inoculations fared a lot less well against another mutant that surfaced in South Africa.