Tag: omicron

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Experts tout boosters; CDC releases omicron data: COVID updates

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Pfizer vaccine: Protection against Omicron coronavirus variant improves with three vaccine doses

Samples from people who had two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine saw, on average, a more than 25-fold reduction in neutralization ability against the Omicron variant than the earlier virus, “indicating that two doses of BNT162b2 may not be sufficient to protect against infection with the Omicron variant,” the companies said.

The companies said two doses may still provide protection against severe disease.

“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement. “Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of COVID-19.”

The initial lab studies used serum from blood from individuals who received two or three doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. The sera was collected from subjects three weeks after their second dose, or one month after a third dose. The data released Wednesday has not been peer-reviewed or published.

“We believe that with the two doses, you still have relevant protection for severe disease, but clearly the drop is antibodies is substantial,” Dr. Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer at Pfizer, told CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta on Wednesday. “However, the good news this morning is that our data show convincingly when you get your boost — the third boost — the antibody levels rise 25 fold and are now similar to the originally two dose boost that protected well against ancestral strains as well as Delta.

“Go and get your third boost and you have a robust, quite impressive antibody response as well as a strengthening of the other arm of the immune system, the T cells,” Dolsten said. “That’s really the takeaway … two doses is on the weak end against this new variant, T cells may help you to be protected against severe disease, hospitalization — but it’s really time to get the third boost.”

NYC anime convention may offer 'earliest looks' at Omicron spread in US, CDC director says

President Joe Biden called the preliminary results “very, very encouraging.”

“I have some good news this morning that Pfizer’s lab report came back saying that the expectation is that the existing vaccines protect against Omicron but if you get the booster you’re really in good shape. So that’s very encouraging news,” Biden told reporters on the South Lawn Wednesday.

“That’s the lab report. There’s more studies going on but that’s very, very encouraging.”

Another study, released Tuesday by researchers in South Africa, showed the Omicron coronavirus variant partly escapes the protection offered by the Pfizer vaccine. The preprint study showed people who have been previously infected and then vaccinated are likely to be well protected, and Alex Sigal of the Africa Health Research Institute in Durban, who led the study team, told CNN that boosters are also likely to protect people.

“My impression is if you get a booster you are protected, especially against severe disease,” Sigal said.

Since reports of the Omicron variant emerged in late November, US health officials have urged people to get vaccinated and boosted. Last week, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention began recommending all adults get a Covid-19 vaccine booster.

Adults who have had the Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines are eligible to get a booster six months after their second shot. Those who got the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine are eligible for a booster of any authorized vaccine two months after their first dose.

About a quarter of adults who are vaccinated against Covid-19 have also received a booster dose, according to CDC data. More than 144 million adults should get a booster, based on CDC guidance, but only about 48 million adults have received one.

Pfizer and BioNTech also said Wednesday they are continuing to develop a variant-specific vaccine for Omicron and it will be available by March, if it’s needed.

“I’m not sure that we’ll need it because it’s one very likely scenario that the current booster will be enough to maintain protection, but if we need one, I’m sure we can make one and the good news is that we will have it by March,” Bourla said on NBC’s “Today” show on Wednesday.

CNN’s Deidre McPhillips, Naomi Thomas and Amanda Sealy contributed to this report.

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Does the Omicron variant increase risk of reinfection?

A woman getting tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing site at Times Square in New York City on Dec 6, 2021Share on Pinterest
A woman getting tested for COVID-19 at a mobile testing site at Times Square in New York City on December 6, 2021. Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
  • Omicron, which is the latest SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, is spreading globally.
  • A South African study has found high rates of reinfection among those with previous confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections since the beginning of November. This was when scientists discovered the Omicron variant there.
  • These observations suggest that Omicron can evade immunity from prior infection.

A preprint study from South Africa suggests that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is more than three times as likely to reinfect people than previous variants.

This ability to evade immunity from prior infection may be causing its rapid spread.

For the study, which has not yet undergone peer review, researchers rapidly analyzed 2,796,982 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases in South Africa. All first infections had occurred at least 90 days before November 27, 2021.

The researchers identified primary infections and suspected repeat infections. They considered anyone who tested positive again more than 90 days after their first positive test to have a reinfection with SARS-CoV-2.

The team analyzed whether or not there were differences in reinfection risk during the first, second, and third waves. The second wave was dominated by the Beta variant, the third wave was dominated by the Delta variant, and experts assume that the Omicron variant has dominated reinfections since November 2021.

They judged a higher relative risk of reinfection among the population in any wave as indicating immune escape by the virus. Immune escape means that the virus can evade immunity acquired through either infection or vaccination.

Of the sample, 35,670 people (1.3{cfdf3f5372635aeb15fd3e2aecc7cb5d7150695e02bd72e0a44f1581164ad809}) had two confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infections. There were peaks of reinfection in January and July 2021, which corresponded with the peak of waves two and three in South Africa, along with a spike in reinfections in November 2021, which corresponded with the detection of the Omicron variant there.

The researchers suggest that this means that Omicron can evade prior immunity. They call for in vitro studies to test this.

They also note that although in vitro studies for the Beta and Delta variants suggested that they could evade prior immunity more effectively than the original Alpha variant, their own analysis did not show this at a population level. This is because there was no increased risk of reinfection in either the second or third waves compared with the first.

The authors suggest that scientists need to design better experiments to determine the risk of immune escape in vitro.

Dr. Chris Coleman — an assistant professor of infection immunology at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom — told Medical News Today: “This is a clear sign that the new variant is escaping immune responses, as this is evading the ‘natural’ response — which may be more complex than vaccine-induced response.”

These findings may have implications for public health planning. For example, if Omicron is more transmissible and can evade immunity, the potential for spread is enormous. The authors question whether or not immune escape will mean that people are less protected against severe COVID-19.

Experts have noted that most Omicron infections have, so far, led to only mild symptoms, and there have been no recorded deaths yet. However, the ability of Omicron to reinfect is worrying.

Dr. Arturo Casadevall, Ph.D. — chair of the Molecular Microbiology & Immunology Department at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore — highlighted that concern.

He said: “These results imply that Omicron has changed so much relative to the other variants that prior COVID-19 immunity is not as protective. This finding is very concerning because it implies that whatever immunity was built up by prior COVID-19 is not sufficient to protect against Omicron.”

In speaking to the Science Media Centre, Prof. Paul Hunter — a professor of medicine at the Norwich School of Medicine in the U.K. — agreed.

“Unlike previous waves that were because the variants were intrinsically more infectious, Omicron appears to […] have substantial immune escape, at least from immunity caused by a natural infection. Whether Omicron is also more infectious is possible but cannot be answered by this analysis.”

– Prof. Paul Hunter

The authors point out that their study cannot answer the question about whether or not the current vaccines will be effective against Omicron. At the time of the study, vaccination levels in South Africa were very low.

However, experts believe that — as with other variants — even if vaccines do not prevent infection, they should prevent severe COVID-19 from Omicron.

The vaccination status of those with suspected reinfections in this study was not known.

“One key question, of course, is if this [increased risk of reinfection with Omicron] also applies to vaccinated individuals and, as they say, the public health implications (e.g., is the infection milder with reinfection?).”

– Dr. Chris Coleman

Dr. Casadevall stressed: “These findings heighten the concern that the same [immune escape] may happen in those vaccinated. Omicron is showing itself to be a very dangerous new variant with the potential to set back some of the progress we have made against COVID-19.”

So, until we have more data about Omicron, experts are clear that the priority is to get as many people vaccinated as possible.

Dr. Michael Head, Ph.D. — a senior research fellow in global health at the University of Southampton in the U.K. — told the Science Media Centre: “[While] we await more data to emerge over the coming days and weeks, the message to the general public has to be — go and get all the doses you are eligible for.”

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Confirmed US omicron cases up; Biden’s winter plan: COVID news

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New omicron variant cases found in New York, Colorado, Minnesota

Four states in the U.S. have identified new cases of the omicron variant of the coronavirus.

On Thursday, health officials from Minnesota, New York, and Colorado announced cases of the new, highly mutated variant, one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first individual detected with omicron in California.

The three cases in California, Minnesota and Colorado have been mild and those individuals are recovering, health officials say.

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday evening that the state had confirmed five cases of the omicron variant.

“Let me be clear: This is not cause for alarm. We knew this variant was coming and we have the tools to stop the spread,” Hochul said. “Get your vaccine. Get your booster. Wear your mask.”

Hochul held a joint news conference with New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, telling reporters that the early cases appear to be minor, non-life-threatening cases at this time.

A 67-year-old woman in Suffolk County who traveled to South Africa tested positive Nov. 30 following mild symptoms upon returning home. She had received at least one vaccination, but it was unclear whether the woman was fully vaccinated, Hochul said.

Two other cases were from individuals in Queens and one in Brooklyn, but their vaccination status was unknown.

The fifth case was identified in New York City from a traveler, but Hochul did not have further details.

Minnesota’s Department of Health said an adult male, who lives in Hennepin County, was found to have the variant. He was vaccinated about six months ago and had gotten his booster shot in early November, officials with the department said during a briefing Thursday.

He had mild symptoms on Nov. 22, which have since resolved.

He told the Minnesota Department of Health that he had traveled to New York City to attend the Anime NYC 2021 convention at the Javits Center on Nov. 19-21.

Minnesota health officials are working with New York health officials to determine who the man may have had contact with. He hadn’t traveled internationally, and officials with the Minnesota Health Department said it’s most likely that transmission of the virus happened at the convention.

A statement from the Javits Center, which at one point was a New York City vaccination center, said visitors are required to show proof of vaccination and wear masks indoors.

Because the Minnesota man attended the convention, it’s likely the variant is spreading in New York City, health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi, said on Twitter Thursday, urging attendees of the convention to be tested immediately and take precautions such as wearing a mask and social distancing.

It’s unclear whether the new cases in New York were related to the convention at the Javits Center, Hochul and de Blasio said, noting that contact tracing had only just begun.

One person close to the man, in Minnesota, has tested positive for coronavirus with a rapid test, officials said. The result is under investigation, and the person is isolating, they said.

Gov. Tim Walz said the “news is concerning, but it is not a surprise.”

“We know that this virus is highly infectious and moves quickly throughout the world,” he said.

A female resident of Colorado has also contracted the variant strain of the virus, the state’s department of health confirmed Thursday. The woman, who lives in Arapahoe County, had recently traveled to South Africa and was fully vaccinated, but had not yet received a booster shot.

She is experiencing mild symptoms and isolating in her home, according to Colorado Department of Health and Environment.

On Wednesday, the CDC and the California Department of Public Health and the San Francisco Department of Public Health identified a traveler who returned from South Africa on Nov. 22 as the first confirmed case of the omicron variant in the U.S. — three days before scientists in that country announced they’d identified the new variant.

The person in California, an adult under age 50, developed symptoms a few days after arriving in the U.S. and got tested on Nov. 28, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a briefing Wednesday. The test came back positive for Covid-19 on Monday, Nov. 29.

“The individual, who was fully vaccinated and had mild symptoms that are improving, is self-quarantining and has been since testing positive,” the CDC reported in a statement.

Close contacts of the California case have been undergoing Covid tests and so far, no one has tested positive. The individual from California was fully vaccinated with two doses of the Moderna vaccine, but had not been eligible to receive a booster shot.

The omicron variant has a high number of mutations that suggest it may spread just as or more easily than the delta variant, which accounts for 99.9 percent of Covid cases in the U.S.

Scientists have cautioned that it’s still unclear whether omicron is more dangerous than other versions of the virus that has killed more than 5 million people worldwide. It is also unknown how well the vaccines and treatments would work against the variant.

The World Health Organization said Monday that the global risk of the new variant is “very high.”

Meanwhile, public health experts continue to recommend tried-and-true ways of Covid protection: vaccination and a booster, wearing masks indoors and in crowded spaces, and continued physical distancing.

The variant has been detected in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Germany, Belgium, Canada, Australia, Israel and Hong Kong, among other countries.

While world leaders and health experts are urging people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, some countries are struggling to inoculate their populations due to lack of access.

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First omicron variant case discovered in United States in California