A study from South Africa examines the effectiveness of the corona vaccines against Omikron. Christian Drosten is concerned about the results.
Kassel – According to a current study from South Africa, the new Corona * variant Omikron * significantly reduces the protective effect of the vaccines, which is why they would only partially protect against the mutant. In view of the new findings, virologist Christian Drosten has warned people who have been vaccinated twice.
Alex Sigal, virologist and professor at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa, said that the neutralization of Omikron “decreased very much” compared to previous Covid mutants. Nevertheless, he was pleasantly surprised by the results of the study, which was published on the laboratory’s official website. “The results are better than I expected. The more antibodies you have, the better the chances of being protected against Omikron. ”That was reported by tagesspiegel.de.
Study shows: Corona variant Omikron reduces the effect of vaccines – Drosten warns vaccinated people
As part of the study, the laboratory examined the blood of twelve people who were vaccinated with the vaccine from the manufacturer Biontech / Pfizer. As reported on the website, a 41-fold decrease in antibodies against the Omikron variant was found. However, the results are not conclusive enough, which is due to the small number of test subjects. In addition, so far it is also unclear what the results mean for a possible course of the disease in unvaccinated and vaccinated people.
Many experts are currently assuming that a booster vaccination against Corona will also significantly increase the protection against Omikron. Nevertheless, according to Sigal, the effect of the booster vaccinations on Omikron has not yet been investigated, as it is not yet officially available in South Africa at the moment. However, the virologist on Twitter was already optimistic: “Omikron is a problem that we can solve with the tools we have.”
The mutant is also spreading in Germany. Some researchers even consider it likely that the Corona variant Omikron will be rampant in Germany for longer than assumed *.
In the video: Drosten warns of the rapid spread of the Corona variant Omikron
Drosten worried about Omikron – adjustment of the corona vaccines probably necessary
The Frankfurt virologist Sandra Ciesek came to similar results as those of the South African study. On Wednesday (December 8th, 2021) she published an evaluation of her studies with regard to the effect of the vaccines against Omikron. According to their findings, the protective effect of the vaccine against the new corona mutant decreases significantly.
“The data confirm that the development of a vaccine adapted to Omikron makes sense,” wrote the researcher on Twitter. The manufacturers of the mRNA vaccines Biontech and Moderna have confirmed that the corona vaccine is already being adapted to Omikron *. The active ingredient could then be inoculated in the first quarter of 2022. The manufacturer of the new corona vaccine Novavax also commented on its effectiveness against Omikron *.
The sought-after virologist Christian Drosten issued a warning to all vaccinated people based on the researchers’ matching results: “The results go well together. It doesn’t look good for a double vaccine. A third dose is necessary. ”Drosten also considers it very likely that Omikron will take the same course as the Delta mutant and will account for the majority of all new infections in Germany in the near future. “I think we will have a problem with Omikron in Germany from January,” said the professor at the Charité in Berlin. There would therefore be no avoiding an adaptation of the vaccines. (Alina Schröder) * hna.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.
