Hungarian scientists reveal the effectiveness of the Chinese vaccine

A recent Hungarian study shows that the lack of antibodies does indeed suggest lower protection against Covid-19.

As HVG reported, researchers measured the neutralising antibodies of people vaccinated with the Sinopharm vaccine and compared the results with the disease data of people also vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine.

With this, it was revealed that antibody levels are indeed a good predictor of immunity and that the lack of antibodies in elderly people vaccinated with the Chinese vaccine does suggest that they are less protected against Covid-19.

As Telex wrote, the results of the research were published in the scientific journal BMC Infectious Diseases, and they found that while 90% of people under the age of 50 had measurable levels of the antibody, 25% of people over 60 and 50% of people over 80 had no neutralising antibodies.

“Based on these findings, it seems clear that elderly people vaccinated with Sinopharm are much less protected against the coronavirus than younger people.”

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The authors of the study are Tamás Ferenci, associate professor and biostatistician at the University of Óbuda, and Balázs Sarkadi, an academic and medical biochemist at the Natural Sciences Research Centre of the Eötvös Loránd Kutatási Hálózat (Eötvös Loránd Research Network, ELKH).

Vaccine Vakcine Ampulla Ampoule Oltás Koronavírus Coronavirus Idős Elderly

Photo: MTI/Vasvári Tamás

During the experiment, a total of 450 people were tested for antibodies to a part of the coronavirus spike protein between 1 April and 21 June 2021. Measurements were taken at least 14 days after the second dose of the Sinopharm vaccine.

The study found that antibody levels decrease with age.

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Telex already reported on the study and its key findings in July when it was made available in unedited form. However, an important development has taken place since then: at the end of November, the first study was published showing the protection levels of vaccines used in Hungary, broken down by vaccine type and age.

Referring to this, Miklós Kásler (Minister of Human Resources) said:

“Vaccination with the Sinopharm vaccine provides a broader spectrum of protection than all other vaccines.”

Unfortunately, however, this study did not cover the period when the effectiveness of the vaccines began to decline significantly due to the length of time that had elapsed. Despite this, it was still a landmark study because it was the first to provide meaningful data in a professional format on the performance of vaccines in Hungary.