Omicron threat shines through anniversary of COVID vaccine

Keenan has become the first person in the world to receive Pfizer Inc’s COVID vaccine outside of clinical trials. It was a turning point in the pandemic, raising hopes that there was a way out of the crisis, as well as questions about how well the sharply scored shots would perform.

Now, after 8 billion doses, the effect is obvious. Vaccines – not only from Pfizer but also Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca plc, Johnson & Johnson and others – have reduced hospitalizations and deaths in countries where they have been widely rolled out. In Europe alone, research shows that they have saved nearly five million lives among people 60 years of age and older.

vaccine effect

But they have not eradicated the virus. Cases have quadrupled in the past year, large parts of the world lack access to vaccines and related variants continue to emerge, leading to new waves of infections, the return of lockdowns and travel restrictions.

And now, two years into the pandemic, there is Omicron, a heavily mutated version that has emerged in recent weeks. It has put the world on edge, with everyone eagerly awaiting information about the severity of the strain and how well vaccines will work against it.

Sarah Pitt, a virologist at the University of Brighton in England, said: “Vaccines are a great miracle of modern science. But some governments decided they were going to have their own way out of the pandemic. We will do everything we can. Somebody has to get vaccinated, and it’ll be all right. Of course, it was never going to work.”

UK Covid-19 vaccine rollout

National Health Service staff applaud Margaret Keenan after she became the first person in the UK to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at University Hospital in Coventry, UK, on ​​December 8, 2020. Photographer: Jacob King/PA Wire/Bloomberg

The first Pfizer shot in the US came a week after Keenan, on December 14, 2020. China began preparing its own vaccines in the summer of 2020 under an emergency use authorization.

Since Keenan’s time, many developed countries, including the UK, have vaccinated most of their populations.

But the rollout hasn’t been smooth over the past year, partly due to delivery malfunctions and very rare but potentially serious side effects, which have fueled hesitation in some quarters. Scientists also worry that vaccine disparities will lead to more dangerous strains that pose a risk to all countries.

vaccine production

The COVID-19 shots developed in record time are remarkable achievements. Yet they are not 100% effective, and some people who are safe can still become infected and transmit the disease to others.

Those cases appear to be more frequent due to increased delta type and reduced immunity in people who had been vaccinated months earlier. In Europe, the latest surge in infections has put Austria back into lockdown, while Germany could be about to mandate vaccines.

Scientists are now rushing to update existing shots to counter Omicron when needed, and some are aiming to target multiple variants in one shot. Mutations to Omicron suggest that it is likely to evade the safety of the vaccines, at least to some extent, but there is also some very tentative evidence that it will not cause more severe disease than previous versions of the virus. The answers to some of these important questions are expected in the coming days.

With studies showing that vaccine effectiveness diminishes over time, governments are ramping up booster campaigns. Tablets from Merck & Co and Pfizer are on the way, adding to the arsenal against the virus.

Noting that vaccines are not a silver bullet, some health experts say that, instead of counting so heavily on shots, governments should have prolonged the measures, from masks to testing, to other measures.

David Heyman, professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a former World Health Organization official, said: “We are very fortunate to have the vaccine. In the UK and many countries with high vaccination levels, public health leaders believe They are, and I think they are probably right, that they are able to differentiate serious disease from infection caused by vaccines. But they are not able to prevent infection with this generation of vaccines.”

vaccine drive

Inequality has also been an issue in the campaign to vaccinate the population. Instead of vaccines being distributed equitably, wealthy countries raced to the front, creating a clear gap in access. Health advocates have focused on expanding shipments, technology and production capacity.

Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the WHO director-general, says more affluent countries should focus on helping low-income countries that are battling a “toxic mix” of low vaccination levels, weak testing, fragile health systems and other factors . Otherwise, the virus will have room to take hold and adapt.

“You are playing with fire” if you don’t keep pressure on the virus in all parts of the world, he said. “This virus will mutate, and if any of those mutations are conducive to transmission, they will emerge and they will dominate, and then you run into potential problems.”

But given the recent surge in cases in Europe and elsewhere and the fresh Omicron threat, wealthy countries may now be more inclined to submit to the shots.

In the US, the variant is prompting concerns about potential in already stressed health-systems. Around four out of five intensive care beds across the country are currently occupied, with a significant proportion of COVID patients.

China, whose shots are less effective than messenger RNA shots used in the West, marked the surprising milestone of fully vaccinating 1 billion people in September. Yet despite the high coverage, its borders are tightly sealed and Beijing continues to meet flareups with the same pre-vaccine playbook of strict lockdowns and mass testing to stamp out every infection.

Britain, the first country in the Western world to approve and deploy COVID vaccines, is recording more than 50,000 cases a day, approaching a 2021 high.

“The good news is that these vaccines have performed better than we expected,” said Michael Kinch, a vaccine specialist at Washington University in St. Louis. But “we need to try to try to stay one step ahead of this thing, and there we take our eyes off the prize.”

The concern now is that Omicron makes this even more difficult, and the effectiveness of vaccines slowly diminishes over time in the face of newer forms.

“Whether we like it or not, it’s here to stay,” he said.