Vaccines and previous infection could offer some “stronger than basic” protection to Omicron, early study suggests.
Tube samples of Omicron, however, do further propose its “significant” capability to evade protection from previous infection and, potentially, even third vaccine dose.
Published today (December 11, 2021), one of the earliest, peer-reviewed studies looking into the Omicron variant of COVID-19 suggests that people previously infected with COVID, and those vaccinated, will have some, “stronger than basic” defense against this new strain of concern.
However, the test tube (or ‘in-vitro’, scientifically) samples of Omicron examined in this new research do show it “exceeds” all other variants in its potential capability to evade the protection gained from previous infection or vaccination.
Published on December 10, 2021, in Emerging Microbes & Infection, the findings also suggest that although a third-dose enhancement strategy can “significantly boost immunity,” the protection from Omicron “may be compromised” – but more research is needed to better understand this.
Reporting on this very early study, lead author Youchun Wang, Senior Research Fellow from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in China, says their results support recent findings in South Africa which highlight Omicron was “easy to evade immunity.”
“We found the large number of mutations of the Omicron variant did cause significant changes of neutralization sensitivity against people who had already had COVID,” Wang says.
“However, the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still higher than the baseline, which indicated there is still some protection effect can be observed.”
Wang, who is Former Chairman of the Medical Virology and Vice Chairman of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the Chinese Medical Association, does adds caution though.
He says that because the antibody protection – in the form of previous infection or vaccination – decreases gradually over a period of six months, Omicron “may be able to escape immunity even better.”
Plus, his team’s paper predicts that whilst “a third-dose enhancement strategy can significantly boost immunity,” the “protection from Omicron may be compromised.”
The expert team of 11 scientists looked at 28 serum samples from patients recovering 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 variants marked as ‘of interest’.
“This study verifies the enhanced immune escape of Omicron variant, which sounds the alarm to the world and has important implications for the public health planning and the development of matching strategies,” Wang summarizes.
Now, the team states that more research, carried out not just in-vitro but in real-world studies is urgently needed to better understand Omicron. And, specifically, whether it can “escape from the vaccine-elicited immunity to cause more severe disease and death.”
“It needs to be re-evaluated whether the antibodies can still be effective against the Omicron variant,” the authors state.
“The exact impact to human protection may be influenced by more factors such as the infectivity of Omicron variant relative to other variants to human populations and the viral fitness of Omicron once the humans are infected.
“More population studies including the level of immune protection and symptoms among people infected with Omicron are needed to fully establish the global impact of Omicron to the control of COVID-19 pandemic.”
The major caveat of this study is that it is in-vitro in nature and that it used pseudotyped (manufactured) viruses. However, previous studies have used in-virto as an established measure of “good correlation” and the current vaccine literature “has established that the in vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of vaccine protection efficacy and real-world vaccine effectiveness.”
Therefore, the authors state, their data “may well predict the potential reduction of vaccine protection against the new Omicron variant.”
Reference: “The significant immune escape of pseudotyped SARS-CoV-2 Variant Omicron” by Li Zhang, Qianqian Li, Ziteng Liang, Tao Li, Shuo Liu, Qianqian Cui, Jianhui Nie, Qian Wu, Xiaowang Qu, Weijin Huang and Youchun Wang, 10 December 2021, Emerging Microbes & Infections.
DOI: 10.1080/22221751.2021.2017757
All the coronaviruses and all their variants have different protein spikes, with Delta having one that’s more efficient at getting around the vaccines. Perhaps Omicron will, too. But the real problem is in the virus itself, not its protein shell, and why the most dangerous (MERS, SARS, and Covid-19) are so infectious. My independent research has found multiple one-in-a-million nucleotide sequence matches between all the coronaviruses and the human genome. Those sequences are the same as some of the loops of human tRNA. Using those loops and their amino acid code matches, viruses may be able to fool the nucleus membrane in cells to allow the virus to enter and associate with the human DNA, creating more opportunities for further infection. Our immune system may be compromised and may no longer be able to stop the virus and other diseases from attacking organs throughout the body. Vaccines that attack the virus protein shells while ignoring their contents are doomed to failure from the Darwin effect, but recognizing these loops suggests a possible approach to successful coronavirus vaccines. Only the infection process is considered in my work, not the innate virulence of the virus. For more info, check out this YouTube, Coronavirus – Using Your DNA Against You. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dOIzD6ch8s
Dr. Vladimir Zelenko said anyone that willfully vilified and obstructed access to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin in the prevention and treatment of Covid-19 is guilty of first degree capital murder, genocide, and crimes against humanity. They are trying to jab as many people as possible so that their great reset aka depopulation plan work. I believe in God & Jesus. If I get sick I will take my Ivermectin that I stashed just in case and leave rest to God.
Viruses have been mutating for millions of years, this is becoming a joke. I’m fully vaccinated and it dosnt change anything I’m still a leppar apparently. viruses well never stop killing old and unhealthy people. Our government is just a bunch of old people bought by even older rich men unwilling to accept their mortality. Yiur rich not a God go live in a bubble and stop stealing years if my life.
Again, may I point out that the Covid 19 virus has led to many people being socially isolated and left to their own devices scanning Web sites. Also that the winter weather is keeping many people indoors as well.
Mr. Wagner’s note does represent a bloc of opinion that is not being addressed and meshes well with the generational antipathies of some US demographics. It is true that the US may or may not be in the early stages of partition, but his complaint crosses those lines.