Two doses of the coronary vaccine seem to protect well against getting sick from omicron. It gets even better with three doses. – The elderly can lower their shoulders a little more, says the researcher.
—
– This is better than I thought. It is quite nice, says researcher Gunnveig Grødeland at the University of Oslo (UiO).
She’s just looked at one preliminary study from the UK. The effect of the vaccine against the omicron variant has been assessed.
The study shows:
- Two doses provide around 35 percent protection against getting sick from omicron.
- Three doses provide around 76 percent protection against getting sick from omicron.
- The study did not look at the protection against becoming infected without you getting symptoms.
Spreads quickly
The vaccine mainly has four ways to protect us:
- to prevent infection
- to prevent us from getting mild symptoms
- to prevent us from getting serious illness
- to prevent death
It is already believed that the vaccine protects well against becoming seriously ill from the variant. Preliminary findings now show that the probability of getting mild symptoms may also be less than feared, according to the study. It is believed that the vaccine provides poor protection against being infected with omicron without you getting symptoms.
There is great uncertainty associated with the recent findings. The study has not been peer-reviewed. This means that it is not scientifically quality assured. The margin of error is large. But still, there is reason to trust it, according to Grødeland.
Omikron has spread at record speed in South Africa. It has been detected in over 57 countries worldwide. Several cases have also been identified in Norway. Many of those infected were fully vaccinated.
– Can lower the shoulders a little more
Grødeland is surprised by the findings from the UK.
– I have thought that fully vaccinated people who become infected would at least largely get a mild illness. A little fever and cold. But this shows that almost 40 percent do not even get it, she says.
– And after dose three?
– It is also better than expected. Elderly and risk groups who receive a dose of wood now can lower their shoulders a little more than usual, says Grødeland.
The findings indicate that it will be important to hurry up and vaccinate the remaining elderly and risk groups with dose three, according to the UiO researcher.
–581 with omicron
The study was conducted by The UK Health Security Agency. They have looked at the effect of both Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine and the Astra Zeneca vaccine. In Norway, only mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are used.
The authors of the study make several reservations: It is still at a very early stage. In addition, relatively few have so far tested positive for omicron. This is the first study to measure the effect of the vaccine on omicron-infected people.
The studies have looked at 581 positive omicron samples. In the same period, there were over 56,000 Delta-infected and 130,000 without infection.
FHI: Unlikely with more serious illness
Authorities around the world are now working to find out more about omikron. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) has previously said that two vaccine doses probably provide very low protection against becoming infected.
This week they came up with a new risk assessment. FHI believes that omicron is unlikely to cause more serious disease in vaccinated people. Perhaps it can cause less serious illness than delta.
Furthermore, they believe that it is more contagious. This is in line with what other researchers believe they have discovered. FHI reckons that vaccination will provide a high degree of protection against serious illness, regardless of variant.
–
