The results of one of the studies carried out on Omicron They come from the African Health Research Institute (AHRI) in Durban, South Africa. The team of scientists from the research center of the South African country, where Ómicron emerged, warns that the complete guideline of Pfizer’s vaccine only protects 22.5% against COVID in the case of the new variant.
Researchers have found that the new strain has the ability to evade much of the antibodies generated with the Pfizer vaccine and that “essentially compromises the vaccine’s ability to protect against infection“However, after the study they believe that vaccination can help prevent serious illness, since the level of neutralization of Ómicron is estimated at 5.7%.
“Much lower neutralization levels are sufficient for protection against severe disease, although this estimate is difficult to validate“They warn. However, the current level of omicron neutralization” is above this minimum level and, therefore, it would be more or less sufficient for protection against serious disease. “
Need for the third dose
Another of the conclusions that they draw from the results of the research is that the situation is much better in those vaccinated who had previously been infected with COVID. Of the six study participants who were in this situation, five of them showed neutralization levels high enough to be protected from both Omicron infection and serious illness. Thus, scientists determine that a third booster dose is appropriate.
“These data support the idea that the high neutralization capacity induced by the combination of infection and vaccination, and possibly a booster dose, could maintain reasonable efficacy against Omicron“They say the experts.” It is possible that the protection against serious disease “, they continue,” will be maintained even if the neutralization capacity decreases and the protection against infection is low “.
Alex Sigal, lead author of the research, notes that the results are better than expected. “The virus has changed so much that it was feared that it would use a different receptor, not ACE2. If this were the case, many of our pharmacological tools to control this virus would be useless. But is not the case. Ómicron is a manageable problem with the tools we already have, “concludes the scientist.
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