New Delhi: Cases of the new variant of Coronavirus, Omicron Variant, are increasing continuously in India. Recently a report has come out regarding the Omicron variant. According to a study, for people who have been previously infected with the coronavirus and have also been vaccinated, Omicron has less effect on the immunity of such people.
The results, published in the journal Emerging Microbes and Infections, suggested that the third dose of the vaccine for protection against Omicron could significantly enhance immunity. However, researchers from the National Institute for Food and Drug Control in China said more studies are needed to better understand the association. He supported recent results in South Africa, which highlighted that it was easier for Omicron to evade immunity.
China’s Food and Drug Control Institute did a study
Study lead author Yuchun Wang from the National Institute for Food and Drug Control said, ‘We found that mutations in the Omicron variant caused significant changes in neutralization sensitivity against a large number of people who had already been diagnosed with coronavirus. In this regard, Wang said that the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still higher than baseline, indicating that there is still some protection effect that can be observed. Wang cautioned that since antibody protection gradually decreases over a six-month period such as a previous infection or vaccination, Omicron may be able to protect against immunity even better.
Researchers looked at 28 serum samples from patients who had recovered from SARS-CoV-2. They tested these against in-vitro Omicron samples as well as four other strains identified by the World Health Organization and two variants of interest. “This study confirms the increased immune escape of Omicron variants, which is alarming to the world and has important implications for the development of public health planning and matching strategies,” Wang said.
Need for study on more population
He said, ‘The exact effect on human protection may be influenced by more factors, such as variants of other viruses relative to Omicron on the human population and the effect of Omicron on viral fitness once the human body is infected.’ According to the researchers, control of the pandemic requires more population studies including the level and symptoms of immune protection in infected people globally. The researchers also said that the major caveat of this study is that it is in-vitro in nature. A pseudo or manufactured virus has been used in this.
However, the researchers say that current vaccine literature has proven that in-vitro neutralization assays are good predictors of vaccine safety efficacy and real-world vaccine effectiveness. Therefore, the authors stated that their data could predict a potential decrease in vaccine safety against new Omicron variants.
