Two doses of CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccines are almost as effective against the Indian variant as they are against the UK variant, England’s health officials have said. But the protection from the first doses against the Indian variant has been “notably lower” than they are against the UK variant, they said. UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the study, which hasn’t yet been peer-reviewed, provided “groundbreaking” evidence to prove how valuable the COVID-19 vaccination programme is. Public Health England (PHE) on Saturday published a preprint (pdf) of its study on the effectiveness of CCP virus vaccines against the B.1.617.2 variant, which was first identified in India. The study analysed data from the six weeks between April 5 and May 16 to cover the period since the variant emerged in England. It included all the symptomatic cases in England from the period. Among those cases, 1,054 people from all age groups and …