Scientists in South Africa have concluded that two sub-strains of the mutated omicron of the Corona virus can fool the immune bodies built in the body from previous Covid-19 infections enough to cause a new outbreak, but are less able to co-exist in the blood of those who received the virus vaccine.
A resident of Beijing undergoes a Corona examination
Scientists from more than one institution examined the PA4 and PA5 subtypes of Omicron, which the World Health Organization added last month to its watch list.
Scientists drew blood samples from 39 participants who had been infected with Omicron when it first appeared at the end of last year.
Fifteen of them had been vaccinated against Corona, 8 with the “Pfizer” vaccine and 7 with the “Johnson & Johnson” vaccine, while the rest did not receive any vaccine to prevent corona.
Corona vaccination campaign in the United States
The study, whose preliminary version was published at the weekend, said: “The group that received the vaccines showed the ability to neutralize the virus more than five times, and therefore they are better protected.”
In samples drawn from those who did not receive vaccinations, there was an eightfold decrease in antibody production upon exposure to the two sub-strains compared to the original Omicron PA1 strain.
For its part, the blood samples of those who received the vaccine showed a decrease of only three times.