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Johannesburg: Scientists at the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said the two-dose Omicron version of a previous infection with the disease, along with the Covid-19 shot from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, could offer stronger protection against it.
Laboratory experiments with blood plasma led them to hypothesize that Omicron would provide 73% protection against symptomatic disease and 95% protection against severe infection for people who had been vaccinated and had been previously infected. , scientists led by Alex Siegel released a preprint. on Wednesday. A preprint has not been peer reviewed.
Scientists have estimated 35 percent protection against symptomatic disease and 77 percent protection against serious infection for those who were only vaccinated. This still indicates “adequate security”, he said. The study involved 19 participants with an average age of 52 years.
The study echoes initial findings from Discovery Health Ltd, South Africa’s largest medical-insurance provider with 3.7 million customers, which obtained results from health records. It also mirrors the studies conducted by Pfizer.
Still, there are concerns that the muted number of hospitalizations and deaths in South Africa, even as daily cases hit a record on Wednesday, could be due to levels of prior infections. A recent antibody survey showed that in Gauteng province, the epicenter of the Omicron outbreak, 72% of people were previously infected with COVID-19. Other countries, which have less intense waves of infection, may have a different experience. The age of the participants may also be a factor. While the team led by Sigal is not.
The results did not account for the timing of sample collection immediately after vaccination, and therefore may not show a reduction in neutralization capacity, which cuts into vaccine efficacy over time. Nevertheless, long-term T cell immunity against beta and delta variants indicates that a more complete immune response will likely contribute to protection against severe disease caused by omicron infection, counteracting the effects of a reduced initial antibody response.
The discovery by South African and Botswana scientists of the rapidly spreading Omicron variant around the world was announced on 25 November. Sigal’s team was the first to show that the variant could largely, but not completely, evade the antibodies produced. Pfizer vaccine. ,bloomberg
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