RELATED: These Are the Symptoms of the Omicron Variant, South African Doctor Says. As a result of the newly arrived variant, some virus experts say their daily activities will be different as they cope with the newfound risk. “People who thought that they wouldn’t have to worry about infection this winter if they had their booster do still have to worry about infection with Omicron,” Trevor Bedford, PhD, a virologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, told The Atlantic. “I’ve been going to restaurants and movies, and now with Omicron, that will change.” Even during recent surges, the availability of highly effective vaccines and boosters has afforded a level of protection against COVID that has kept infections, hospitalizations, and deaths at a much lower level in the U.S. than they were during last winter’s surge. But studies now show that even people who have received their supplemental shot are potentially vulnerable, with a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finding that one-third of reported Omicron infections in the U.S. were in patients who had received their booster shot. And a South African study found that seven patients who had all been boosted still contracted the variant. Findings from a study conducted by Discovery Health—the largest private health insurer in South Africa—have fueled concerns about the latest version of the virus after they were released on Dec. 14. Data collected from more than 211,000 people who tested positive for the virus showed that the 90 percent effectiveness provided by two shots of the Pfizer vaccine against symptomatic infection dropped to 33 percent against Omicron, USA Today reported. However, protection against severe COVID was still found to be around 70 percent in fully vaccinated patients, even though this number began to diminish in patients above age 60 and even more so above age 70. “This is the first time we’ve had any data on that,” Eric Topol, MD, vice president for research at Scripps Research in La Jolla, California, and a national expert on the use of data in medical research, told USA Today. “Seventy percent is definitely a dropdown. It isn’t great. It was 95 percent effective severe disease when it was Delta variant and then about 85 percent after six months of waning.”
RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. However, other data has provided some optimism about the supplemental shot. In a study released by Pfizer and BioNTech on Dec. 8 testing their vaccine’s effectiveness against the latest variant, it was found that blood samples taken from patients who had only received the initial two doses saw a 25-fold reduction in antibodies, which the companies said “may not be sufficient to protect against infection” from Omicron. However, samples taken from patients one month after receiving a booster shot of the vaccine saw an antibody response that was similar in strength to levels recorded against previous variants after the initial two shots, The New York Times reports. The tests also suggest that T cells—a critical part of the immune response—did not appear to be affected by the high number of mutations observed on the Omicron variant’s spike proteins. According to the companies, this could mean that “vaccinated individuals may still be protected against severe forms of the disease” even if they’ve only received their initial shots. ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Previously, experts had speculated that vaccine manufacturers would develop a shot specifically to combat the variant. But others pushed back on the idea. “My suspicion is that once we have an Omicron-specific booster, the wave will be past,” Bedford told The Atlantic. Still, officials urge the public to get their extra dose to afford themselves as much protection as possible from the variant. “Our booster vaccine regimens work against Omicron,” Anthony Fauci, MD, chief COVID adviser to President Joe Biden, said during a White House COVID press briefing on Dec. 15. “At this point, there is no need for a very specific booster. And so the message remains clear: If you are unvaccinated, get vaccinated, and particularly in the arena of Omicron if you are fully vaccinated, get your booster shot.” RELATED: The CDC Head Just Made This Dire Prediction About Omicron in the U.S.
