Pfizer claims its reinforcement offers significant protection against Omicron
Blood samples obtained one month after receiving a third booster vaccine showed neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant.
Photo: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
Pfizer and BioNTech said Wednesday that laboratory tests suggest that three doses of your coronavirus vaccine offer significant protection against the variant Ómicron of the fast-spreading virus.
The American firm Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech said that blood tests of individuals who received only two doses found a reduction of more than 25 times in the levels of antibodies against the Omicron variant compared to a previous version of the virus.
Big news from Pfizer: “Sera obtained from vaccinees one month after receiving the booster vaccination… neutralized the Omicron variant to levels that are comparable to those observed for the wild-type SARS-CoV-2 spike protein after two doses. ” https://t.co/il2j1J3Lwi
This finding indicates that two doses alone “may not be sufficient to protect against infection ”with the new variant, the companies said.
But blood samples obtained from people one month after receiving a third vaccine of Booster showed neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant comparable to antibody levels against an earlier version of the virus after two doses, the companies said in a statement.
At the same time, The tests suggested that mutations in Omicron do not appear to significantly affect T cells, another critical part of the immune system response.
That’s right It suggests that “vaccinated people may still be protected against severe forms of the disease” after just two doses, the companies said.
The results seem to underscore the importance of booster injections to combat the new variant.
“Our first preliminary data set indicates that a third dose could still offer a sufficient level of protection against diseases of any severity caused by the Omicron variant, ”said Dr. Ugur Sahin, CEO of BioNTech, Pfizer’s German partner.
The results come a day after a preliminary report on laboratory experiments in South Africa found that Omicron appeared to weaken the power of Pfizer’s vaccine.
Those experiments also hinted that people who have received a booster shot might be better protected.
The Omicron variant has spread to dozens of countries, while the Delta variant remains overwhelmingly dominant in the United States and the Biden administration is bracing for the Omicron impact.
In an interview last week, Dr. Albert Bourla, Pfizer’s president and CEO, said the company began developing a version of its vaccine specifically targeted at against the Omicron variant the day after Thanksgiving. Moderna is going the same way.
If a different version of the vaccine is needed, Dr. Bourla said, Pfizer could produce it in 95 days.
“We can change production overnight, ”he said. “There will be no need to start producing new machinery, new equipment, new formulas.” He added: “We will be able to produce almost the same number of doses as our current vaccine.”
He said that since the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine came out, Pfizer has developed two other prototypes in response to new variants. Neither was necessary, he said, because the original vaccine worked against mutations in the virus.
At a briefing at the White House on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s leading infectious disease expert, said it would still be weeks before scientists understand just how virulent the Omicron variant is.
“We shouldn’t draw definitive conclusions, certainly not before the next two weeks,” he said.
He said the first reports from medical officials South Africans presented a somewhat hopeful picture of Omicron’s impact. Researchers at a major hospital complex in Pretoria reported this week that coronavirus patients are significantly less ill than those they have treated before, and that other hospitals are seeing the same trends.
