A new international study underscores the importance of third-party vaccinations in the fight against the rampant omicron variant of the coronavirus. According to the study by experts from Boston and Harvard, only people boosted with mRNA vaccines are protected against the new variant, while those who have recovered and who have been vaccinated are not. Blood samples from 239 people who had been vaccinated with Moderna, Biontech / Pfizer or Janssen were examined.
The study found that the antibodies after the booster with mRNA vaccines were hardly weaker against Omikron than against the original virus, the so-called wild type. Other vaccination schemes, however, showed little or no effect against the new virus variant. The study also took into account how long ago the vaccination was and whether the vaccinated had also been infected with SARS-CoV-2. The blood samples were tested for their neutralizing effect against the wild type, Delta and Omikron.
Most of the samples did not have a neutralizing effect on the omicron variant. People who were only boosted with mRNA vaccines showed neutralizing antibodies and effectiveness against Omikron – almost as strong as against the original variant. People who had been vaccinated (mRNA) and recovered developed only partially neutralizing antibodies against Omikron.
The detailed analysis of the pattern of action against the three virus types also suggested that the booster not only leads to higher antibody counts with a neutralizing effect, but also increased the range of immunity and thus showed a good effect against all three virus types. The study by scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and the Ragon Institute of MGH at Harvard, Cambridge, was only published as a preprint, which means it has not yet been peer-reviewed.