In case you're getting a booster shot
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How booster shots can help protect you from Omicron
Immunity from COVID-19 vaccines fades over time, but data show boosters do offer better protection against all variants—including the more contagious Omicron.
BYSANJAY MISHRA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 17, 2021
• 5 MIN READ
As the new Omicron variant spreads, experts say the best defense against all viral variants that cause COVID-19 is a full dose of a vaccine followed by a booster shot several months later.
Since the first mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 was authorized on December 11, 2020, studies have shown that unvaccinated people are at five times greater risk of getting infected and 10 times greater risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.
But research from Israel and the U.S. also revealed that vaccine-induced immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus wanes in six to eight months. That’s especially worrying as more populations are exposed to the more contagious Omicron variant, which was first detected in November in South Africa.
Vaccine boosters provide
better protection against
the Omicron variant
Vaccine effectiveness
100%
80
Delta
75.5%
60
Omicron
40
34.2%
Vaccines are less effective against Omicron than Delta, but boosters almost restore vaccine effectiveness.
20
0
First
dose
2-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25+
Booster
Weeks from second dose
Jason Treat, NGM Staff.
Source: Nick Andrews and others,
KHub.net 2021
To date Omicron has been reported in 77 countries. In the United States, the variant is in more than 37 states and makes up 3 percent of total cases; the rest are still Delta. But in London it now makes up the majority of positively diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infections, and in South Africa it is the dominant strain.
Boosters, however, can restore antibody levels to their peak values—providing more robust protection against Omicron.
“Vaccines help to protect you, or at least prevent you from dying from the disease,” says Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who detected some of the first cases of Omicron outside of South Africa. “And no matter what it is, Omicron or Delta, having a booster will be beneficial.”
What is a booster?
COVID-19 vaccines train our immune systems to make antibodies using synthetic versions of the virus’s spike protein—the part of the virus that helps it bind to human cells. If a vaccinated person later encounters the virus, the antibodies recognize it and bind to the spike protein to prevent infection.
The first dose of an mRNA vaccine prepares the cells to make antibodies, and the second dose matures and enhances those antibodies to bind even more strongly to the spike protein, so that it can’t anchor to receptors on human cells. In the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single dose was enough to make sufficient antibodies against the original coronavirus.
But for all COVID-19 vaccines authorized to date, antibody levels do gradually decline, says Maria Elena Bottazzi, a vaccinologist at Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine. That’s where boosters come in.
The booster dose is currently recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone ages 18 and older. The CDC says people should get boosted six months after their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, or two months after the J&J vaccine. The CDC has also recommended boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds who were fully vaccinated with two jabs of the Pfizer vaccine.
Scientists are still gathering evidence for how long immunity from the booster lasts and whether more will be needed down the line.
How does Omicron affect vaccines?
Since Omicron has accumulated over 30 mutations in the spike protein alone compared to the original virus, it seems to evade antibodies generated by two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single dose of the J&J vaccine, especially as antibody levels drop in the blood.
In a U.K. study that’s not yet been peer reviewed, the effectiveness of two shots of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines in preventing COVID-19 symptoms from Omicron fell to less than 40 percent within 15 weeks after the second dose. There was a lesser decline in the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against Delta, but vaccine effectiveness still slipped to just 60 percent after 25 weeks.
Other preliminary studies from South Africa, Israel, and France also show steep declines in the ability of antibodies to neutralize Omicron in people vaccinated with the two-dose Pfizer vaccine or two doses of Moderna’s vaccine.
Boosters still work against Omicron
The good news is that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine increases antibody levels by 25-fold, which should be sufficient to neutralize Omicron. A booster dose of Moderna’s vaccine also improved the neutralization of Omicron compared to the previous two shots alone.
“The two doses with waning immunity mean there's no protection within a few months after the two doses,” says Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and vaccine scientist at Baylor College of Medicine. “The booster at least gives you something in the 70 percent range.”
Other studies show that when people received any mRNA booster dose, their antibody levels against Omicron rose to the protective level considered sufficient to prevent a COVID-19 infection.
“Our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron,” Anthony Fauci said during a White House COVID-19 update on 15 December. “At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster,” Fauci added.
However, the data so far is largely from laboratory studies, and immunity involves more than just antibodies. More real-world data will be important to assess how effective current vaccines will be against Omicron in the long run.
www.nationalgeographic.com
Immunity from COVID-19 vaccines fades over time, but data show boosters do offer better protection against all variants—including the more contagious Omicron.
BYSANJAY MISHRA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 17, 2021
• 5 MIN READ
As the new Omicron variant spreads, experts say the best defense against all viral variants that cause COVID-19 is a full dose of a vaccine followed by a booster shot several months later.
Since the first mRNA vaccine against COVID-19 was authorized on December 11, 2020, studies have shown that unvaccinated people are at five times greater risk of getting infected and 10 times greater risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19 than those who are fully vaccinated.
But research from Israel and the U.S. also revealed that vaccine-induced immunity against the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus wanes in six to eight months. That’s especially worrying as more populations are exposed to the more contagious Omicron variant, which was first detected in November in South Africa.
Vaccine boosters provide
better protection against
the Omicron variant
Vaccine effectiveness
100%
80
Delta
75.5%
60
Omicron
40
34.2%
Vaccines are less effective against Omicron than Delta, but boosters almost restore vaccine effectiveness.
20
0
First
dose
2-9
10-14
15-19
20-24
25+
Booster
Weeks from second dose
Jason Treat, NGM Staff.
Source: Nick Andrews and others,
KHub.net 2021
To date Omicron has been reported in 77 countries. In the United States, the variant is in more than 37 states and makes up 3 percent of total cases; the rest are still Delta. But in London it now makes up the majority of positively diagnosed SARS-CoV-2 infections, and in South Africa it is the dominant strain.
Boosters, however, can restore antibody levels to their peak values—providing more robust protection against Omicron.
“Vaccines help to protect you, or at least prevent you from dying from the disease,” says Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who detected some of the first cases of Omicron outside of South Africa. “And no matter what it is, Omicron or Delta, having a booster will be beneficial.”
What is a booster?
COVID-19 vaccines train our immune systems to make antibodies using synthetic versions of the virus’s spike protein—the part of the virus that helps it bind to human cells. If a vaccinated person later encounters the virus, the antibodies recognize it and bind to the spike protein to prevent infection.
The first dose of an mRNA vaccine prepares the cells to make antibodies, and the second dose matures and enhances those antibodies to bind even more strongly to the spike protein, so that it can’t anchor to receptors on human cells. In the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single dose was enough to make sufficient antibodies against the original coronavirus.
But for all COVID-19 vaccines authorized to date, antibody levels do gradually decline, says Maria Elena Bottazzi, a vaccinologist at Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine. That’s where boosters come in.
The booster dose is currently recommended by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for everyone ages 18 and older. The CDC says people should get boosted six months after their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna mRNA vaccines, or two months after the J&J vaccine. The CDC has also recommended boosters for 16- and 17-year-olds who were fully vaccinated with two jabs of the Pfizer vaccine.
Scientists are still gathering evidence for how long immunity from the booster lasts and whether more will be needed down the line.
How does Omicron affect vaccines?
Since Omicron has accumulated over 30 mutations in the spike protein alone compared to the original virus, it seems to evade antibodies generated by two doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the single dose of the J&J vaccine, especially as antibody levels drop in the blood.
In a U.K. study that’s not yet been peer reviewed, the effectiveness of two shots of the Pfizer or AstraZeneca vaccines in preventing COVID-19 symptoms from Omicron fell to less than 40 percent within 15 weeks after the second dose. There was a lesser decline in the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine against Delta, but vaccine effectiveness still slipped to just 60 percent after 25 weeks.
Other preliminary studies from South Africa, Israel, and France also show steep declines in the ability of antibodies to neutralize Omicron in people vaccinated with the two-dose Pfizer vaccine or two doses of Moderna’s vaccine.
Boosters still work against Omicron
The good news is that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine increases antibody levels by 25-fold, which should be sufficient to neutralize Omicron. A booster dose of Moderna’s vaccine also improved the neutralization of Omicron compared to the previous two shots alone.
“The two doses with waning immunity mean there's no protection within a few months after the two doses,” says Peter Hotez, a pediatrician and vaccine scientist at Baylor College of Medicine. “The booster at least gives you something in the 70 percent range.”
Other studies show that when people received any mRNA booster dose, their antibody levels against Omicron rose to the protective level considered sufficient to prevent a COVID-19 infection.
“Our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron,” Anthony Fauci said during a White House COVID-19 update on 15 December. “At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster,” Fauci added.
However, the data so far is largely from laboratory studies, and immunity involves more than just antibodies. More real-world data will be important to assess how effective current vaccines will be against Omicron in the long run.
How booster shots can help protect you from Omicron
Immunity from COVID-19 vaccines fades over time, but data show boosters do offer better protection against all variants—including the more contagious Omicron.
Omicron is dodging the immune system—but boosters show promising signs
Initial data on the new variant have experts worried about its ability to spread rapidly. But vaccine boosters still seem to be effective, as do some monoclonal antibody therapies.
BYSANJAY MISHRA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 10, 2021
• 10 MIN READ
Two weeks after the world first learned about the Omicron variant, scientists now agree that it spreads faster than Delta, and it seems to evade existing immunity more easily than previous variants. But whether it causes more severe illness is still up for debate.
Despite multiple travel bans, the Omicron variant has already spread to 57 countries and has now been detected in 21 U.S. states. At least for now, though, Delta remains the most prevalent variant in the world and still causes most COVID-19 deaths globally.
Omicron was first detected in South Africa, and an ongoing analysis shows that it is the most contagious variant to date in that country. By the end of November—the most recent date for which data is available—Omicron accounted for 70 percent of all South African cases; it is projected to have risen to over 90 percent by now.
At the epicenter of the Omicron outbreak is South Africa’s Gauteng Province, where daily cases of COVID-19 are doubling about every three to four days. In the town of Tshwane, active COVID-19 cases have tripled from 6,697 to 20,425 within a week. And in Gauteng, the most populous province of South Africa, one in three tests are returning positive. This positivity rate means there is high transmission in the population, and the actual number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be even higher than the officially documented number.
A virus can spread faster because it might be more transmissible or because it can evade previous immune responses.
“Some of Omicron patients are shedding a lot of virus,” says Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who detected some of the first cases of Omicron outside of South Africa. Poon’s study has shown that Omicron spreads very efficiently through air, “which may be causing higher transmission.”
But the evidence is converging that the “main advantage of Omicron [over Delta] comes from immune escape,” says Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist and biostatistician at the KU Leuven University in Belgium.
Why is Omicron different from past variants?
Multiplying viruses frequently mutate because of errors in replicating their own genetic material. So with each of the hundreds of thousands of new daily infections, the virus gets that many opportunities to mutate.
“Viruses are mutation-generating machines”, says Sergei Pond, a virologist at Temple University who has shown the trends in evolution of SARS-CoV-2 lineages.
New mutations in Omicron’s spike protein are a particular cause for concern. The spike is critical for SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells and is the main target for antibodies. Mutations there can change the appearance of the spike and make it more difficult for antibodies to recognize and bind to it, enabling the virus to evade immunity.
Omicron has undergone over 50 mutations compared to the original virus, with over 30 mutations in its spike protein.
“When you put them all together, there's so many that there's the theoretical possibility that the shape of the spike protein will be overall substantially changed,” says Herbert “Skip” Virgin, an immunologist and chief scientific officer of Vir Biotechnology, Inc., which is developing COVID-19 therapeutics.
“We don't have any direct measurements of clinical impact of Omicron yet,” says Pond, but his preliminary analysis has identified significant changes in Omicron that are likely to influence both antibody neutralization and spike function.
Can Omicron reinfect those with natural immunity?
What has researchers most concerned is that Omicron can evade existing immunity, escaping antibodies generated through natural infection.
“Omicron, as opposed to Delta, appears to reinfect people who had previously been infected,” says Jerome Kim, head of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea. In South Africa, Omicron seems to be reinfecting about two and a half times more people than all previous variants.
“Reinfection risk has increased markedly since the beginning of October in South Africa, and this seems to correspond with the emergence of the Omicron variant,” says Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch.
Analyses of antibodies in blood samples have estimated that 60 to 70 percent of people in South Africa had already been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 before Omicron was spotted. Pulliam’s study, which is not yet peer reviewed, scoured the PCR results of 2.5 million South Africans for evidence of reinfection. Her team found that about 10 percent of all infections in November occurred in people who had previously been positively diagnosed with COVID-19 since March 2020.
“This is what one would expect if Omicron is more resistant to neutralizing antibodies,” says Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
Are vaccines still effective against Omicron?
There are reports of post-vaccinated infections occurring with Omicron in Hong Kong, Minnesota, and Norway. In Denmark, where COVID-19 surveillance is very high, Omicron accounted for 3.1 percent of all cases in the past two weeks or so. That suggests the variant can spread even when more than 80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.
“I was actually one of the first verified Omicron cases outside of Africa,” says Maor Elad, a cardiologist at Sheba Medical Center, Israel, who caught Omicron during a visit to London for a conference despite wearing masks and having received three doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“I had symptoms for 48 hours: fever, muscle aches, sore throat, and then I was weak, fatigued, unwell for two or three additional days. But after five days, I recovered completely,” says Elad. Even if vaccinated, he adds, you can still get infected. “Vaccine efficiency is not 100 percent.”
However, it’s too early to assess whether current vaccines are not going to be effective against this new variant.
In the study by Poon in Hong Kong, Omicron patients had been fully vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine five to six months before they caught the variant. And from a preliminary report from Tshwane by the South African Medical Research Council, six of the 38 adults who contracted COVID-19 as of early December were vaccinated, 24 were unvaccinated, and eight had unknown vaccination status.
It’s also not yet clear whether vaccination status can explain the larger proportion of younger patients catching Omicron in South Africa. Only about 25 percent of people under 35 in that country has received a COVID-19 vaccine, and just 33 percent of the population in Gauteng is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a press release, Pfizer says that three doses of its vaccine neutralize Omicron in lab studies, while two doses may be significantly less effective. This is in line with independent but still preliminary laboratory studies that suggest Pfizer’s vaccine is less effective against Omicron relative to the ancestral virus and previous variants.
But if the company’s data holds up, booster doses of the current vaccine should still provide some immunity. And multiple vaccine-makers are now racing to modify their vaccines for Omicron specifically.
Does Omicron cause more severe disease?
It’s still too early to assess the full impact of Omicron’s effect on disease severity because it takes about two weeks from infection to development of symptoms. However, even though hospitalizations are rising rapidly in South Africa, a report documenting the first two weeks of the Omicron wave shows that deaths—which tend to rise between two and eight weeks after the start of a new COVID-19 wave—in the biggest hospital in Gauteng have not echoed the dramatic rise in cases.
According to this early report, most patients didn’t show respiratory symptoms, most were admitted to the hospital for other medical reasons, and the length of hospital stays for COVID-positive patients was 2.8 days, compared to the average of 8.5 days during past 18 months.
That could be because “Omicron is still mainly circulating among younger people. Eighty percent of the hospitalized patients in Gauteng Province are under 50,” says Wenseleers, who has modeled earlier waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger people typically endure milder infections than older people.
“Even now, we don't know whether Omicron could cause more severe clinical outcome or not,” says Poon. He led the team that sequenced the 2003 SARS coronavirus, established the earliest PCR test to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, and was on the international team of virologists that named the virus.
There is also no guarantee that Omicron’s impact in the U.S. and Europe—which have older populations—will be the same as in South Africa. But preliminary data as of December 8 showed that among all 337 Omicron cases detected in the European Union, symptoms were either mild or not present, and no deaths related to the new variant have been reported in member countries.
But even milder but more transmissible variants can be dangerous, according to Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. If allowed to spread unchecked, the virus can infect greater numbers of people, who then overwhelm health systems, causing a spike in deaths. Worryingly, an analysis from the U.K. Health Security Agency suggests that the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for Omicron than for the Delta variant.
Will current therapies still work?
Four monoclonal antibody products are currently authorized to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in non-hospitalized patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe disease or hospitalization.
In a study not yet peer reviewed, a monoclonal from GSK and Vir Biotechnology called Sotrovimab remained effective against a lab-made Omicron-like virus. “Sotrovimab is capable of neutralizing the Omicron variant, including all 37 of the mutations, [which makes us] very optimistic that Omicron can be dealt with therapeutically,” says Vir Biotechnology’s Virgin.
“Despite the considerable evolution of the virus with Omicron, we have evidence that effective therapeutics are available to control the pandemic,” says Davide Corti, a leading antibody researcher at Vir Biotechnology. That’s critical if Omicron causes a high percentage of cases in people who are vaccinated. Whether other therapeutic antibodies can block Omicron is currently unknown, but Virgin remains optimistic about available treatments.
“The vaccines are a remarkable accomplishment, even if they lose activity against a certain variant,” he says. “People should get vaccinated, and should they begin to develop symptoms that might be due to coronavirus, they should immediately seek medical attention, because it's not hopeless."
www.nationalgeographic.com
Initial data on the new variant have experts worried about its ability to spread rapidly. But vaccine boosters still seem to be effective, as do some monoclonal antibody therapies.
BYSANJAY MISHRA
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 10, 2021
• 10 MIN READ
Two weeks after the world first learned about the Omicron variant, scientists now agree that it spreads faster than Delta, and it seems to evade existing immunity more easily than previous variants. But whether it causes more severe illness is still up for debate.
Despite multiple travel bans, the Omicron variant has already spread to 57 countries and has now been detected in 21 U.S. states. At least for now, though, Delta remains the most prevalent variant in the world and still causes most COVID-19 deaths globally.
Omicron was first detected in South Africa, and an ongoing analysis shows that it is the most contagious variant to date in that country. By the end of November—the most recent date for which data is available—Omicron accounted for 70 percent of all South African cases; it is projected to have risen to over 90 percent by now.
At the epicenter of the Omicron outbreak is South Africa’s Gauteng Province, where daily cases of COVID-19 are doubling about every three to four days. In the town of Tshwane, active COVID-19 cases have tripled from 6,697 to 20,425 within a week. And in Gauteng, the most populous province of South Africa, one in three tests are returning positive. This positivity rate means there is high transmission in the population, and the actual number of COVID-19 cases is likely to be even higher than the officially documented number.
A virus can spread faster because it might be more transmissible or because it can evade previous immune responses.
“Some of Omicron patients are shedding a lot of virus,” says Leo Poon, a virologist at the University of Hong Kong who detected some of the first cases of Omicron outside of South Africa. Poon’s study has shown that Omicron spreads very efficiently through air, “which may be causing higher transmission.”
But the evidence is converging that the “main advantage of Omicron [over Delta] comes from immune escape,” says Tom Wenseleers, an evolutionary biologist and biostatistician at the KU Leuven University in Belgium.
Why is Omicron different from past variants?
Multiplying viruses frequently mutate because of errors in replicating their own genetic material. So with each of the hundreds of thousands of new daily infections, the virus gets that many opportunities to mutate.
“Viruses are mutation-generating machines”, says Sergei Pond, a virologist at Temple University who has shown the trends in evolution of SARS-CoV-2 lineages.
New mutations in Omicron’s spike protein are a particular cause for concern. The spike is critical for SARS-CoV-2 to infect human cells and is the main target for antibodies. Mutations there can change the appearance of the spike and make it more difficult for antibodies to recognize and bind to it, enabling the virus to evade immunity.
Omicron has undergone over 50 mutations compared to the original virus, with over 30 mutations in its spike protein.
“When you put them all together, there's so many that there's the theoretical possibility that the shape of the spike protein will be overall substantially changed,” says Herbert “Skip” Virgin, an immunologist and chief scientific officer of Vir Biotechnology, Inc., which is developing COVID-19 therapeutics.
“We don't have any direct measurements of clinical impact of Omicron yet,” says Pond, but his preliminary analysis has identified significant changes in Omicron that are likely to influence both antibody neutralization and spike function.
Can Omicron reinfect those with natural immunity?
What has researchers most concerned is that Omicron can evade existing immunity, escaping antibodies generated through natural infection.
“Omicron, as opposed to Delta, appears to reinfect people who had previously been infected,” says Jerome Kim, head of the International Vaccine Institute in Seoul, South Korea. In South Africa, Omicron seems to be reinfecting about two and a half times more people than all previous variants.
“Reinfection risk has increased markedly since the beginning of October in South Africa, and this seems to correspond with the emergence of the Omicron variant,” says Juliet Pulliam, director of the South African DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Epidemiological Modelling and Analysis in Stellenbosch.
Analyses of antibodies in blood samples have estimated that 60 to 70 percent of people in South Africa had already been exposed to SARS-CoV-2 before Omicron was spotted. Pulliam’s study, which is not yet peer reviewed, scoured the PCR results of 2.5 million South Africans for evidence of reinfection. Her team found that about 10 percent of all infections in November occurred in people who had previously been positively diagnosed with COVID-19 since March 2020.
“This is what one would expect if Omicron is more resistant to neutralizing antibodies,” says Theodora Hatziioannou, a virologist at the Rockefeller University in New York City.
Are vaccines still effective against Omicron?
There are reports of post-vaccinated infections occurring with Omicron in Hong Kong, Minnesota, and Norway. In Denmark, where COVID-19 surveillance is very high, Omicron accounted for 3.1 percent of all cases in the past two weeks or so. That suggests the variant can spread even when more than 80 percent of the population is fully vaccinated.
“I was actually one of the first verified Omicron cases outside of Africa,” says Maor Elad, a cardiologist at Sheba Medical Center, Israel, who caught Omicron during a visit to London for a conference despite wearing masks and having received three doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“I had symptoms for 48 hours: fever, muscle aches, sore throat, and then I was weak, fatigued, unwell for two or three additional days. But after five days, I recovered completely,” says Elad. Even if vaccinated, he adds, you can still get infected. “Vaccine efficiency is not 100 percent.”
However, it’s too early to assess whether current vaccines are not going to be effective against this new variant.
In the study by Poon in Hong Kong, Omicron patients had been fully vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine five to six months before they caught the variant. And from a preliminary report from Tshwane by the South African Medical Research Council, six of the 38 adults who contracted COVID-19 as of early December were vaccinated, 24 were unvaccinated, and eight had unknown vaccination status.
It’s also not yet clear whether vaccination status can explain the larger proportion of younger patients catching Omicron in South Africa. Only about 25 percent of people under 35 in that country has received a COVID-19 vaccine, and just 33 percent of the population in Gauteng is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
In a press release, Pfizer says that three doses of its vaccine neutralize Omicron in lab studies, while two doses may be significantly less effective. This is in line with independent but still preliminary laboratory studies that suggest Pfizer’s vaccine is less effective against Omicron relative to the ancestral virus and previous variants.
But if the company’s data holds up, booster doses of the current vaccine should still provide some immunity. And multiple vaccine-makers are now racing to modify their vaccines for Omicron specifically.
Does Omicron cause more severe disease?
It’s still too early to assess the full impact of Omicron’s effect on disease severity because it takes about two weeks from infection to development of symptoms. However, even though hospitalizations are rising rapidly in South Africa, a report documenting the first two weeks of the Omicron wave shows that deaths—which tend to rise between two and eight weeks after the start of a new COVID-19 wave—in the biggest hospital in Gauteng have not echoed the dramatic rise in cases.
According to this early report, most patients didn’t show respiratory symptoms, most were admitted to the hospital for other medical reasons, and the length of hospital stays for COVID-positive patients was 2.8 days, compared to the average of 8.5 days during past 18 months.
That could be because “Omicron is still mainly circulating among younger people. Eighty percent of the hospitalized patients in Gauteng Province are under 50,” says Wenseleers, who has modeled earlier waves of the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger people typically endure milder infections than older people.
“Even now, we don't know whether Omicron could cause more severe clinical outcome or not,” says Poon. He led the team that sequenced the 2003 SARS coronavirus, established the earliest PCR test to diagnose SARS-CoV-2, and was on the international team of virologists that named the virus.
There is also no guarantee that Omicron’s impact in the U.S. and Europe—which have older populations—will be the same as in South Africa. But preliminary data as of December 8 showed that among all 337 Omicron cases detected in the European Union, symptoms were either mild or not present, and no deaths related to the new variant have been reported in member countries.
But even milder but more transmissible variants can be dangerous, according to Michael Ryan, Executive Director of the WHO Health Emergencies Program. If allowed to spread unchecked, the virus can infect greater numbers of people, who then overwhelm health systems, causing a spike in deaths. Worryingly, an analysis from the U.K. Health Security Agency suggests that the window between infection and infectiousness may be shorter for Omicron than for the Delta variant.
Will current therapies still work?
Four monoclonal antibody products are currently authorized to treat mild to moderate COVID-19 in non-hospitalized patients who are at high risk for progressing to severe disease or hospitalization.
In a study not yet peer reviewed, a monoclonal from GSK and Vir Biotechnology called Sotrovimab remained effective against a lab-made Omicron-like virus. “Sotrovimab is capable of neutralizing the Omicron variant, including all 37 of the mutations, [which makes us] very optimistic that Omicron can be dealt with therapeutically,” says Vir Biotechnology’s Virgin.
“Despite the considerable evolution of the virus with Omicron, we have evidence that effective therapeutics are available to control the pandemic,” says Davide Corti, a leading antibody researcher at Vir Biotechnology. That’s critical if Omicron causes a high percentage of cases in people who are vaccinated. Whether other therapeutic antibodies can block Omicron is currently unknown, but Virgin remains optimistic about available treatments.
“The vaccines are a remarkable accomplishment, even if they lose activity against a certain variant,” he says. “People should get vaccinated, and should they begin to develop symptoms that might be due to coronavirus, they should immediately seek medical attention, because it's not hopeless."
Omicron is dodging the immune system—but boosters show promising signs
Initial data on the new variant have experts worried about its ability to spread rapidly. But vaccine boosters still seem to be effective, as do some monoclonal antibody therapies.
There’s no evidence that the booster protects you from Omicron. It may, or it may not. Taken from above:
“However, it’s too early to assess whether current vaccines are not going to be effective against this new variant.”
“However, it’s too early to assess whether current vaccines are not going to be effective against this new variant.”
You're viewpoint of this demonstrates what so many people get wrong about covid vaccines. You can still get covid after getting the shots. But the effects are drastically reduced.
I've had 3 shots, no side effects for any of them. The Flu and Pneumonia shot had my shoulder sore and a slight headache
What you’re saying is not backed by evidence. There is currently insufficient evidence to say whether the vaccine or booster has any effect on Omnicrom. That’s what the quote that I captured says.
I understand why you are confused, because Fauci and Biden said otherwise, even though there is no evidence of that.
Why you speaking with such confidence and haven't done the knowledge? Take your MAGA hat off and stop sounding like a clown. And don't say some dumb shit about MSM.
COVID-19 boosters offer 'potent' protection against omicron, study says, recommending Pfizer and Moderna
COVID-19 boosters with an mRNA vaccine provide the best protection against omicron, according to a study published this week in the journal Cell.
www.usatoday.com
'Significant increase' in protection vs Omicron from mRNA boosters, study says
Getting a third dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech's or Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine offers a "significant increase" in protection against the Omicron variant in elderly people, according to a Danish study published on Wednesday.
Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron
Preliminary estimates by researchers suggest the top-up shot should help keep many people out of hospital.
www.bbc.com
No Omicron immunity without booster, study finds
Traditional dosing regimens of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States do not produce antibodies capable of recognizing and neutralizing the Omicron variant, reports a new study.
news.harvard.edu
Booster shots protect against symptomatic Omicron infection for about 10 weeks, study finds — which could mean more doses for some in 2022
Experts said boosters should still provide protection against hospitalization and death from COVID-19 caused by Omicron.
www.businessinsider.com
Yea...ok
All of the articles mention a Danish study that’s not peer reviewed, or a study not done in humans, or a UK study that the authors say had “insufficient data.” Since when do we take this level of early stage science as conclusive evidence?Why you speaking with such confidence and haven't done the knowledge? Take your MAGA hat off and stop sounding like a clown. And don't say some dumb shit about MSM.
COVID-19 boosters offer 'potent' protection against omicron, study says, recommending Pfizer and Moderna
COVID-19 boosters with an mRNA vaccine provide the best protection against omicron, according to a study published this week in the journal Cell.www.usatoday.com
'Significant increase' in protection vs Omicron from mRNA boosters, study says
Getting a third dose of either Pfizer-BioNTech's or Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine offers a "significant increase" in protection against the Omicron variant in elderly people, according to a Danish study published on Wednesday.www.reuters.com
Booster at least 80% effective against severe Omicron
Preliminary estimates by researchers suggest the top-up shot should help keep many people out of hospital.www.bbc.com
No Omicron immunity without booster, study finds
Traditional dosing regimens of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States do not produce antibodies capable of recognizing and neutralizing the Omicron variant, reports a new study.
Booster shots protect against symptomatic Omicron infection for about 10 weeks, study finds — which could mean more doses for some in 2022
Experts said boosters should still provide protection against hospitalization and death from COVID-19 caused by Omicron.
What about the UK study that found that suggested that people were MORE likely to get Omicron when you got vaccinated. There is a lot of science going on, which needs to be looked at criticallyto determine what is really happening. That’s not what’s happening.
We live in a crazy world where you can say anything positive about the vaccine and it goes worldwide viral. But if anyone questions anything, they’re called a Trump supporter.
We are living through a mass psychosis people. Stay safe.
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By the way, the 800k people who died “of” Covid actually died “with” covid. Meaning that number is all the people who died with the disease, whether it killed them or not.
According to the head of the CDC, 75% of them died with at least 4 other causes of death (other than Covid).
The entire fake narrative is slowly unraveling
Yep.
They've been fudging and misrepresenting the real death numbers to keep an agenda going.
There's something more sinister going on here then they are letting on. Perhaps it's tied to money, or perhaps worse. Again, hospitals get funding per covid bed. This has been shown thru documentation again and again.
I just want brothers and sisters on here to consider what the opposition is saying without labeling them as conspiracy nuts.
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Is there evidence that you can catch(covid-19) Omicran variant and die if you're not vaccinated?...dummy.
But they ARE LITERALLY hospitalized WITH COVID.
It doesnt matter if covid forced them there or not.
They must be counted in order to track, budget and staff properly for it.
You need to be banned for misinformation.
This has gone beyond opinions and is now irresponsible.
With versus For.
At this point, probably 80% of the population is asymptomatic.
Exhibiting asymptomatic COVID signs and being on a ventilator are very different conditions. The reporting methodology is too nebulous and needs to be measured and presented in a way that leaves no doubt regarding proximate hospitalizations.
I view things differently. Let's say that I broke my leg but showing symptoms from COVID recovery. I should, therefore, not be categorized as a COVID patient but rather for the condition I walked in with.
Yea but if you have covid you will be in a separate area and that will require more resources which is straining the system.
This I understand and won't debate.
It's more of a referendum on how our medical institutions are improperly structured to deal with emergencies.
Youre saying that a person with cancer presenting with a broken finger shouldnt be categorized as a cancer patient?
Heathcare workers need as much history as possible on their patients so they can give the most comprehensive care possible.
Some cancers cause broken bones, just like covid ACTIVATES dormant viral maladies.
Yall aint got no medical background but presume to know enough about it to have an opinion on how it should work.
I mean we're in the arena on the floor playing while youre out in the parking lot breaking into cars.
Got my booster the last week of December 2021.
I got the Pfizer from the VA.
No side effects.
Also got my Flu Shot the same day at the VA.
I got the Pfizer from the VA.
No side effects.
Also got my Flu Shot the same day at the VA.
Man aint nobody watching yall invalids play.... that shit is like watching handicap turtles tryin to run
a relay race.
go sit yo asses down somewhere...
why would I have to break into cars, Id just smack yo ass and take yo shit..
But Im a Holy Man, God favorite so...
no need to break into your tents on wheels
!!!!! lol
gone back to the coloring circle with all the other kindergartners, Freddy.
this is grown folk shit.
Good for you. I got Covid it was just a mild cold, not even as bad as the flu. You're a bunch of bitches.
See what I did there. Your experience is not necessarily that of others.
Covid is a serious disease for many, and vaccine injuries are very serious for some. We should be able to have an adult discussion over who should get the vaccine, and who faces a greater risk of injury from the vaccine than Covid. Of course, because we're in the midst of a mass psychosis, you think I'm talking crazy.
I ain’t read this shit
Me either
Not surprised my childhood hero who turned out to be a racist piece of shit would also be a conspiracy theorist and antivaxxer too. We are living in remarkably stupid times