Laboratory director: Biontech vaccine offers only partial protection against omicron

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Biontech/Pfizer’s vaccine apparently offers only partial protection against the Omikron variant of the coronavirus. That was announced by laboratory director Alex Sigal of the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa based on preliminary results. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) considers it “highly unlikely” that Omicron could completely undermine vaccine protection. Biontech CEO Ugur Sahin expects reliable data on this on Wednesday or Thursday.

He said there was a very large drop in the neutralization of omicron. The neutralization of Omicron had “decreased very much” compared to a previous Covid strain, Sigal said on Twitter. His lab tested blood from 12 people vaccinated with the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, according to the study posted on the lab’s website. A 41-fold decrease in neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron variant was observed, it said. The preliminary data have not yet been peer-reviewed.

There also are no conclusive studies yet on how vaccines from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and other drug makers fare against the new variant. Leading U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that preliminary results suggest the variant likely has a higher degree of transmissibility but is less severe. Biontech CEO Sahin on Tuesday expected that his own data on the vaccine’s effectiveness against the Omicron variant could be available on Wednesday or Thursday. He told U.S. broadcaster NBC News.

For WHO expert Michael Ryan, it is “highly unlikely” that the new Omicron variant of the coronavirus could completely undermine vaccine protection. “We have highly effective vaccines that have proven effective against all variants so far, in terms of severe illness and hospitalization,” the head of WHO’s emergency department said Tuesday. “There is no reason to believe that this might not be the case with Omicron.”

Less severe symptoms
The Irish doctor also confirmed earlier expert assessments that infection with the new variant could cause less severe symptoms. “The general behavior we are seeing so far does not show an increase in severity,” he said. Earlier, Fauci had made similar comments. However, Ryan stressed that analysis of the new variant is still “in the very early stages.”

The Omicron variant had been discovered by scientists in South Africa in late November. Since then, it has been detected in dozens of countries, including Austria. It has 50 mutations compared to the original virus, 32 of which are in the so-called spike protein, which the coronavirus uses to dock with the host cell. As a result, it is feared that this variant is significantly more contagious than earlier variants.

However, Ryan said, “We’re not so much interested in whether you can get reinfected with omicron, but whether the new infections are more severe or more mild.” The senior WHO official stressed, “The best weapon we have right now is vaccination.” The data from South Africa “do not show that we have a catastrophic loss of efficacy.” In fact, “at the moment, the opposite is true.”

German virologist Christian Drosten sees trouble ahead for his country with Omicron starting early next year. “I think from January we will have a problem with Omicron in Germany,” the scientist from Berlin’s Charité hospital said Tuesday in the podcast “Coronavirus Update” on NDR-Info. This problem could continue into the summer, he warned.

In South Africa, the growth rates are high despite the onset of summer there, he said. “And that’s why, at the moment, I wouldn’t say the pandemic will be over in Germany by Easter, when Omicron takes over.” So far, Drosten reported, he is aware of about 25 to 30 Omicron cases in Germany from exchanges with colleagues. The number is not complete, he said, and will increase “in a very short time.”

However, the virologist emphasized that there are still many open questions surrounding the variant and that more data must be awaited. Several times Drosten spoke of a “guessing game.” The initial situations in South Africa and England, where Omicron is spreading at an alarming rate, are also different from those in Germany, he said. The Charité researcher said that he did not want to paint the devil on the wall, but that caution was advisable in view of the changes in the virus.

With Omicron, he said, the “stupidest combination” of properties is to be feared: Immune escape and fitness gain – that is, a variant that better escapes the antibodies of vaccinated and recovered people and is also more contagious. Closing the vaccination gaps in Germany is the first priority, Drosten said. Also, in light of severe courses now being observed in children in South Africa, there is concern that Omicron is “not harmless” to the unvaccinated, he said. One should not fall into a state of euphoria because of reports of mild courses in those who have recovered and those who have been vaccinated.