(CNN) — Even booster doses of coronavirus vaccines do not provide perfect protection against the omicron variant of the virus, but it is too late to expect specific versions of the vaccine variant, an infectious disease expert said Wednesday.
“I have always said that it is a three-dose vaccine, and the reason is that when you receive that third dose, you increase the neutralizing antibodies of the virus 30 to 40 times and, therefore, there is more protection against the spread of variants. , including omicron, ”said Dr. Peter Hotez, vaccine specialist and dean of tropical health at the Baylor College of Medicine, a Alisyn Camerota y Victor Blackwell de CNN.
“The third dose gives you 70% to 75% protection against symptomatic disease. Therefore, less compared to other variants ”, added Hotez. Still, that’s a strong protection. “If you told us a year ago that we would see a vaccine with 70% to 75% protection, we would be delighted,” he said.
Hotez said that now only fragmented information is available. “We all hear about symptomatic and symptomatic infections, even with three doses,” he said. “So I think getting the third dose is absolutely essential, but even that is not perfect.”
Why not wait for companies to produce a booster dose of the vaccine that specifically protects against omicron? It’s too late, Hotez said.
“So, the omicron-specific reinforcement, the problem is this, then, Victor: it takes time to do that. They may be talking about three or four months. This freight train is already here ”, he indicated.
“It looks like it’s going to be here at Christmas, so there won’t be enough time to really have that booster in place to make a significant difference.”
Hotez said he cut back on his own family’s vacation plans. “I don’t want to be the Dr. Grinch who stole Christmas,” he said, but canceled a planned visit from his in-laws. “Unfortunately, I had to ask them not to come because I thought it was a bit risky for them in terms of traveling with an omicron,” he said.
It is also too early to assume that omicron will cause milder disease in the US than previous strains, Hotez said.
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