untitled design

Coronavirus: How effective are vaccines against the Omicron variant

Scientists around the world have been involved in a road race to study the new African Omicron variant of the coronavirus and how dangerous it can be, especially to what extent it has the ability to escape immunity after vaccination or Covid-19 disease (so there is the risk of re-infection).

Although the picture remains unclear at present, the general assessment is that full two-dose vaccination will continue to provide protection, but reduced (as yet unknown), against the risk of serious illness and death, hence the supportive third dose is even more necessary in order to protect more people.

Although Omicron is another – rather unexpected – obstacle to getting out of the pandemic, scientists still find it unlikely that it will send us back almost to the beginning, where we were a year ago without the vaccines. The more people are fully vaccinated and even better with a booster third dose, the more Omicron will find obstacles in its path.

Based on the data so far, mainly from Africa, according to the “New York Times” and the “Guardian”, a mixed picture emerges for the new variant. Moderna president Dr. Stephen Hodge has said that Omicron contains a “mixture of Frankenstein mutations” that raises concerns, but is likely to remain relatively vulnerable to vaccines. If not, then the latter will need updating, which can happen quite quickly thanks to mRNA technology.

Although Omicron has many more mutations, there will always be regions of the new variant that are exposed to antibodies and T cells. On the other hand, Omicron is probably more contagious and more capable – compared to Delta and previous variants – of escaping the body’s immune response, both due to vaccination and disease. How capable and whether there will indeed be a need to adjust current vaccines will take about two weeks to respond.

Evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom of the Hutchinson Research Center in Seattle said: its mutations will cause a significant reduction in neutralizing antibodies “.

Until then, what does this mean for a fully vaccinated person with two doses? The professor of immunology at the British University of Cardiff pointed out that, in the new circumstances, the extra protection provided by the third dose is a good idea. As he said, “if (because of Omicron) half or two thirds or any other percentage of the immune response is no longer effective and you stay with the other half, then the stronger it is, the better.”

The third dose significantly increases the antibodies and this will help against Micron, although, according to the immunologist Michel Nussenzweich of Rockefeller University in New York, these may not be enough to completely neutralize the new variant.

The picture looks better for those who have been fully vaccinated and then have Delta disease or got sick first and then given a dose of vaccine, as they have acquired “hybrid” immunity, which is superior, according to Nussenweich.

“If you’ve had two doses of vaccine and then been infected with Delta and recovered, then it has acquired a very broad, very effective immune response, which probably covers quite well any variation one can think of,” said virology professor David Matthews. British University of Bristol.

The biggest concern concerns the unvaccinated. As Matthews said, “If it is true that Omicron is better at transmitting than Delta and it seems so, then what will happen is that it will accelerate the rate at which the virus will ‘find’ them.” “They will be vaccinated and will send them to hospitals, which will increase the pressure on the national health system. This could trigger a lockout if hospitalizations exceed a certain limit.”

However, it remains unknown, according to scientists, exactly how Omicron will ‘behave’ in a population with high vaccination coverage. Also to be explored is to what extent antiviral drugs will be able to effectively treat the new variant, but there is optimism that they will be sufficiently effective. The same is believed to be the case with dexamethasone, which does not target the virus itself but the body’s response to it, so the many mutations in the virus are not expected to affect its effectiveness.

SOURCE: AMPE

.

Source From: Capital

You may also like

Get the latest

Stay Informed: Get the Latest Updates and Insights

 

Most popular