Pfizer Says Its Booster Is Highly Effective Against Omicron
Preliminary results from a real-world study showed that a booster or third dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine against the Omicron variant, the most severely mutated strain of the coronavirus and first identified in South Africa in November, is highly effective.
A statement from the UK Health Authority (HSA) made it clear that the study included 581 patients with a positive diagnosis for Omicron. They had been vaccinated with two doses of the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines, which had been shown to be inadequate to protect against symptomatic Omicron infections.
However, a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine had provided 70% protection against the Omicron variant in those originally vaccinated with AstraZeneca and 70% in those immunized with Pfizer.
This is one of the first real-world studies to provide epidemiological information on the ability of booster doses to protect against the Omicron variant.
The HSA had previously claimed that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine offers 90% protection against the Delta variant, the highly transmittable strain of coronavirus that first appeared in India last year and is responsible for most of the cases and deaths.
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Earlier this week, the first results of Pfizer’s research to determine the effectiveness of its Omicron vaccine showed that it neutralized the strain.
The researchers analyzed blood samples from hundreds of people originally vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. The antibodies in his blood didn’t completely neutralize the Omicron variant after two doses, but the third dose allowed the antibodies to effectively stop the virus from replicating.
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