The researchers note that there is an urgent need to conduct more research, not only in-vitro but also in real-world studies, to better understand omicrons.
Highlight
- People infected with the first covid will have somewhat stronger than basic protection against omicrons.
- The results highlight that it was “easy to evade immunity” for Omicron.
- The researchers looked at 28 serum samples from patients who had recovered from the original strain of Kovid.
People who were previously infected with COVID-19 and those who were vaccinated will have some “stronger than basic” protection against Omicron, according to one of the most recently identified studies of the novel coronavirus. Is.
However, a laboratory study suggests that Omicron “exceeds” all other variants in its potential ability to protect against previous COVID-19 infection or protection derived from vaccination.
The findings, published in the journal Emerging Microbes and Infections, also suggest that although a third dose of vaccines “may significantly enhance immunity”, protection from Omicron may be “compromised”.
However, researchers at the National Institute for Food and Drug Control in China said more research is needed to better understand the association.
The results support recent findings in South Africa that highlight that it was “easy to evade immunity” for Omicron, he said.
“We found that a large number of mutations in the oomicron variant caused significant changes in neutralization sensitivity against people who already had COVID,” said study lead author Yuchun Wang from the National Institute for Food and Drug Control.
“However, the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still higher than baseline, which indicated that some protection impact may still be seen,” Wang said.
Wang cautioned that since antibody protection – in the form of a previous infection or vaccination – gradually decreases over a six-month period, Omicron “may be able to evade immunity even better”.
The researchers looked at 28 serum samples from patients who had recovered from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2.
They tested these against in-vitro omicron samples as well as four other strains marked ‘of concern’ by the World Health Organization such as Delta and two types marked ‘of interest’.
“This study confirms the increased immune escape of the Omicron variant, which sounds alarm to the world and has important implications for the development of public health planning and matching strategies,” Wang said.
The researchers note that there is an urgent need to conduct more research, not only in-vitro but also in real-world studies, to better understand omicrons.
He said it would be extremely important to know whether the variant could survive the vaccine causing more severe disease and death.
“This needs to be re-evaluated as to whether antibodies can still be effective against the Omicron variant,” said the study’s authors.
“The precise impact on human defenses may be influenced by more factors such as the infectivity of the Omicron variant relative to other types of human populations and the viral fitness of the Omicron variant after humans have been infected,” he said.
More population studies, including the level and symptoms of immune protection in people infected with Omicron, are needed to fully establish the global impact of Omicron for control of the COVID-19 pandemic, the researchers said.
The researchers said the major caveat of this study is that it is in-vitro in nature and that pseudo- or manufactured viruses have been used.
However, current vaccine literature “has established that in-vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of vaccine safety efficacy and real-world vaccine effectiveness,” he said.
Therefore, the authors said that their data “can predict a potential decrease in the vaccine’s safety against the new Omicron variant”.
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