Hope! Omikron responds to Biontech vaccine! Are we not defenseless after all?
Omicron does not completely elude Biontech/Pfizer’s COVID vaccine in a study, giving scientists reason for hope – are we not defenseless after all?
Can Biontech counter Omikron after all?
A new preliminary study on the response of the Omikron variant to Biontech/Pfizer vaccines has been published.
The study, conducted by South African researcher Alex Sigal and his colleagues, suggests that Omikron does not completely evade protection by COVID vaccines.
However, as many scientists had already suspected, the study also showed that the Biontech/Pfizer vaccine is much less effective at neutralizing Omikron than an older version of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, with neutralization activity decreasing by about 40-fold.
Study not yet confirmed
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The results of the study have not yet been peer-reviewed. They are expected to be published online on the preprint repository medRxiv in the next few days.
Researchers have reacted to the study’s findings, some with cautious optimism.
On Twitter, Sigal, a researcher at the Africa Health Research Institute and associate professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, wrote that the results are “better than I expected from Omikron,” and that the fact that the variant is not completely immune to vaccines “means it is a solvable problem with the resources we have.”
We have been waiting for these results. I have to say it’s better than I expected overall. Yes, it means we will see more breakthrough infections w/ omicron, but hybrid immunity holds pretty well & hopefully we will see similar data w/ boosted antisera. https://t.co/eObqJMEbKz
— Muge Cevik (@mugecevik) December 7, 2021
Omikron remains treacherous
However, the study does not mean that Omicron is not a threat. “[Omicron] certainly escapes,” Sigal told CNN. “It’s certainly bad. But it looks to me like there are ways to deal with it.”
Muge Cevik, a clinical lecturer in infectious diseases and medical virology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, echoed that sentiment.
“We have been waiting for these results. I have to say that overall they are better than I expected,” she wrote on Twitter. “Yes, it means we’ll see more breakthrough infections with Omicron, but the hybrid immunity holds up pretty well and hopefully we’ll see similar data with boosted antisera.” A combination of immunity acquired from an infection and the vaccine is called hybrid immunity.
Test group very small
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It is not yet clear how the results of the early study will translate to vaccines in the real world. In addition, the study was small with samples from 12 dually vaccinated individuals.
“In those who had been previously infected with COVID-19 and additionally vaccinated, considerable immune protection was maintained,” Dr Dianne Sika-Paotonu, a lecturer in pathology and molecular medicine at the University of Otago Wellington in New Zealand, told Science Media Centre about the study.
However, she added that more information is still needed about Omicron, including whether or not it causes more severe disease compared to Delta.
Florian Krammer is a professor in the department of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. He said on Twitter that his opinion on Omicron hasn’t changed after the results of the study, which he said showed that there was “little” neutralizing activity left against Omicron in vaccinated individuals.
2)….that very little activity is left in convalescent individuals. However, people who were infected and then vaccinated did have residual neutralizing activity despite a drastic reduction. This certainly also bodes well for vaccinated individuals who received their….
— Florian Krammer (@florian_krammer) December 8, 2021
“However, people who were infected and then vaccinated had residual neutralization activity despite a dramatic reduction,” he added. “This is certainly also a good sign for vaccinated individuals who have received their booster dose.
By the end of November, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had strengthened its recommendation for booster vaccination following the emergence of the Omicron variant, stating that all persons 18 years of age and older should receive a booster once they have been vaccinated six months after receiving their second vaccination from Pfizer or Moderna, or two months after receiving their vaccination from Johnson & Johnson.
This week, Jeff Zients, White House COVID-19 coordinator, said the daily rate of booster vaccinations across the country has peaked.