Beta variant

alternative beta variant · alternative Beta Variant · alternative β variant · alternative β-variant · alternative Β variant · alternative Β-variant

1. The highly virulent B.1.351 strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

   Studies in Qatar, where the Beta variant once accounted for half of all infections, have found that two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are 72 to 75 percent effective at preventing infection with Beta, a lower degree of protection than the shots provide against other variants.

   2021 July 19, Emily Anthes, “The Beta Variant: What Scientists Know”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Jun 2023

   2 more examples

   The Beta variant was selected because it was the prevalent SARS-CoV-2 strain at the time. Thus, after a prolonged interval after immunization with RBD-β, we had planned to challenge these animals with the Beta variant to assess the durability of protection against this variant.

   2022 August 17, Prabhu S. Arunachalam et al., “Durable protection against the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is induced by an adjuvanted subunit vaccine”, in Science Translational Medicine, volume 14, number 658, →DOI

   South Africa stopped offering the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine (which is not available in the U.S.) early in 2021 after clinical trials showed it did not provide strong protection against mild and moderate disease from the Beta variant. Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson also reported less protection against Beta.

   2023 February 3, Kathy Katella, “Omicron, Delta, Alpha, and More: What To Know About the Coronavirus Variants”, in Yale Medicine, archived from the original on 31 May 2023

   Synonyms: beta, Beta, South African variant