> The omikron variant of the coronavirus would be able to evade the protection offered by current vaccines against infection. This is according to the first results of laboratory tests.
>
> After a race against the clock, several laboratories have announced the first results of their research on how corona vaccines work against the new omikron variant of the virus. The news, as was expected, is not good: the omikron variant would be well able to bypass the protection elicited by current vaccines.
>
> According to virologist Sandra Ciesek of the University Hospital Frankfurt, two pricks are no longer enough to guarantee protection. Ciesek’s team exposed the blood of vaccinated individuals to several variants of the coronavirus, including the new omikron variant. She deduced that antibodies induced by two doses of Pfizer, two doses of Moderna, or one dose of AstraZeneca and one dose of Pfizer completely stopped the virus six months after the second shot.
>
> A third shot helps somewhat to restore protection, but the ability to build an antibody response against the omicron variant is still 37 times lower than the response against the delta variant in people who have had three injections of the Pfizer vaccine. This protection also decreases rapidly, and after three months is only a quarter of the protection against the delta variant.
>
> **Booster Shot**
>
> What the laboratory results mean in practice is unclear. Antibodies are only our body’s first line of defense against infection. The experiments say nothing about the action of the second-line defense of immune cells such as B cells and T cells against infection with the coronavirus. ‘But the data we have suggest that it makes sense to develop a vaccine specifically adapted to omikron,’ Ciesek tweeted.
>
> According to Ciesek, there is nothing to say yet about whether existing vaccines will still protect against severe disease following infection with the omikron variant. For now, she has only posted selected findings on Twitter and has not yet published a detailed research paper.
>
> A study by the Africa Research Institute in South Africa also indicates that antibodies generated by current vaccines are less able to prevent infection with the omikron variant. To that end, Alex Sigal’s lab tested blood from 12 people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a manuscript tentatively posted on his lab’s website but not yet published in a journal or peer-reviewed.
>
> The good news is that his study showed that blood from people who had received two doses of the vaccine and had been infected with the coronavirus was generally still able to neutralize the omicron variant. Blood from five of the six people who were both vaccinated and previously infected still neutralized the omikron variant, Sigal said.
>
> ‘This suggests that booster shots of existing vaccines may still help ward off infection,’ corona expert François Balloux (University College London) responded on Twitter. ‘We should not forget that the current corona pandemic is still being driven by the delta variant for now. Omikron has not yet taken over.’
>
> Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
I added the “in laboratory tests” myself to the title. I hope that’s fine
> However, as the vast majority of epitopes targeted by vaccine-induced T cells are not affected by the mutations in Omicron, the companies believe that vaccinated individuals may still be protected against severe forms of the disease and are closely monitoring real world effectiveness against Omicron, globally. A more robust protection may be achieved by a third dose as data from additional studies of the companies indicate that a booster with the current COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech increases the antibody titers by 25-fold. According to the companies’ preliminary data, a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron.
T cells and B cells are the true MVP’s,
Most people who are vaccinated and test positieve are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. I don’t think a single person in Belgium with confirmed omicron is hospitalised.
And Pfizer has released a statement that a boostershot stops the virus right in its tracks so…
All in all to early to know for certain that the vaccines don’t protect enough against infection.
Dear /u/SuckMyBike,
Your submission has been removed because
of rule 9: Content is not relevant to Belgium or Belgians specifically.
5 comments
> The omikron variant of the coronavirus would be able to evade the protection offered by current vaccines against infection. This is according to the first results of laboratory tests.
>
> After a race against the clock, several laboratories have announced the first results of their research on how corona vaccines work against the new omikron variant of the virus. The news, as was expected, is not good: the omikron variant would be well able to bypass the protection elicited by current vaccines.
>
> According to virologist Sandra Ciesek of the University Hospital Frankfurt, two pricks are no longer enough to guarantee protection. Ciesek’s team exposed the blood of vaccinated individuals to several variants of the coronavirus, including the new omikron variant. She deduced that antibodies induced by two doses of Pfizer, two doses of Moderna, or one dose of AstraZeneca and one dose of Pfizer completely stopped the virus six months after the second shot.
>
> A third shot helps somewhat to restore protection, but the ability to build an antibody response against the omicron variant is still 37 times lower than the response against the delta variant in people who have had three injections of the Pfizer vaccine. This protection also decreases rapidly, and after three months is only a quarter of the protection against the delta variant.
>
> **Booster Shot**
>
> What the laboratory results mean in practice is unclear. Antibodies are only our body’s first line of defense against infection. The experiments say nothing about the action of the second-line defense of immune cells such as B cells and T cells against infection with the coronavirus. ‘But the data we have suggest that it makes sense to develop a vaccine specifically adapted to omikron,’ Ciesek tweeted.
>
> According to Ciesek, there is nothing to say yet about whether existing vaccines will still protect against severe disease following infection with the omikron variant. For now, she has only posted selected findings on Twitter and has not yet published a detailed research paper.
>
> A study by the Africa Research Institute in South Africa also indicates that antibodies generated by current vaccines are less able to prevent infection with the omikron variant. To that end, Alex Sigal’s lab tested blood from 12 people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, according to a manuscript tentatively posted on his lab’s website but not yet published in a journal or peer-reviewed.
>
> The good news is that his study showed that blood from people who had received two doses of the vaccine and had been infected with the coronavirus was generally still able to neutralize the omicron variant. Blood from five of the six people who were both vaccinated and previously infected still neutralized the omikron variant, Sigal said.
>
> ‘This suggests that booster shots of existing vaccines may still help ward off infection,’ corona expert François Balloux (University College London) responded on Twitter. ‘We should not forget that the current corona pandemic is still being driven by the delta variant for now. Omikron has not yet taken over.’
>
> Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
I added the “in laboratory tests” myself to the title. I hope that’s fine
This is with regards to infection, not severe disease, hospitalisation, or death. I read cautious optimism in [Pfizer’s press release](https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/pfizer-and-biontech-provide-update-omicron-variant):
> However, as the vast majority of epitopes targeted by vaccine-induced T cells are not affected by the mutations in Omicron, the companies believe that vaccinated individuals may still be protected against severe forms of the disease and are closely monitoring real world effectiveness against Omicron, globally. A more robust protection may be achieved by a third dose as data from additional studies of the companies indicate that a booster with the current COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech increases the antibody titers by 25-fold. According to the companies’ preliminary data, a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron.
T cells and B cells are the true MVP’s,
Most people who are vaccinated and test positieve are either asymptomatic or have very mild symptoms. I don’t think a single person in Belgium with confirmed omicron is hospitalised.
And Pfizer has released a statement that a boostershot stops the virus right in its tracks so…
All in all to early to know for certain that the vaccines don’t protect enough against infection.
Dear /u/SuckMyBike,
Your submission has been removed because
of rule 9: Content is not relevant to Belgium or Belgians specifically.
You can find more information related to our rules on [our wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/belgium/wiki/index#wiki_rules)