Posted on 01/06/2022 1:06:00 PM PST by Red Badger
An additional "booster" dose of Moderna or Pfizer mRNA-based vaccine is needed to provide immunity against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, according to a study by researchers at the Ragon Institute of MGH, MIT and Harvard. The results of this study, reported in the journal Cell, indicate that traditional dosing regimens of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States do not produce antibodies capable of recognizing and neutralizing the Omicron variant.
In late November, health officials in South Africa reported that a previously unknown variant of SARS-CoV-2 was rapidly spreading throughout the country. The variant, given the name Omicron by the World Health Organization, would soon prove to be far more transmissible than Delta, the variant that previously had caused the majority of COVID-19 infections. "People desperately wanted to know whether current vaccines protect against Omicron," says the senior author of the Cell paper, Alejandro Balazs, Ph.D., whose laboratory at the Ragon Institute investigates how to engineer immunity against infectious diseases.
To find answers, Balazs collaborated with a team that included the lead author of the Cell paper, Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran, MD, a clinical pathology resident at MGH and a clinician-scientist fellow at the Ragon Institute. The first step was to construct a harmless version of Omicron known as a "pseudovirus" that could be used in the laboratory to evaluate the effectiveness of the three COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States, which include the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna injections and the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The pseudovirus that Balazs and colleagues created mimicked the behavior of Omicron, which has 34 mutations on its "spike" protein that are not found on the original strain of SARS-Cov-2 first detected in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Scientists believe that these mutations may be partially responsible for Omicron's rapid spread throughout the world.
Next, Garcia-Beltran worked with colleagues at MGH, including hematology-oncology fellow Vivek Naranbhai, MD, Ph.D., to acquire blood samples from 239 individuals who had been fully vaccinated with one of the three COVID-19 vaccines. The study subjects included employees within the Massachusetts General Brigham healthcare system and residents of Chelsea, Massachusetts, a community with a high rate of COVID-19 infections. "It was important to us to have a diverse population represented in the study," says Garcia-Beltran. Included in this group were 70 men and women who had received a third booster dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, according to recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The blood samples were used to measure how effectively each vaccine induces production of protective immunity in the form of antibodies against the Omicron pseudovirus, as well as the Delta and wild type viruses. The results were striking. "We detected very little neutralization of the Omicron variant pseudovirus when we used samples taken from people who were recently vaccinated with two doses of mRNA vaccine or one dose of Johnson & Johnson," says Balazs. "But individuals who received three doses of mRNA vaccine had very significant neutralization against the Omicron variant."
It's not yet clear why an mRNA booster dramatically improves immune protection against Omicron, but Garcia-Beltran says one possibility is that an additional dose creates antibodies that bind more tightly to the spike protein, increasing their effectiveness. Also, a booster dose may generate antibodies that target regions of the spike protein that are common to all forms of SARS-CoV-2. Both theories may be true, says Garcia-Beltran.
Balazs notes that the three-dose mRNA vaccine regimen—that is, the traditional two doses and a booster of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines—provides somewhat lower levels of neutralizing antibodies against Omicron than it does against the COVID-19 wild type strain or Delta variant. But the study's results strongly support the CDC's advice that COVID-19 booster shots are appropriate for anyone 16 and older, and that mRNA vaccines are preferred.
Balazs is a principal investigator at the Ragon Institute and an assistant professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Garcia-Beltran recently established his own laboratory at the Ragon Institute.
Explore further
New evidence that boosters may be crucial in protecting against omicron
More information:
Wilfredo F. Garcia-Beltran et al, mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine boosters induce neutralizing immunity against SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Cell (2022). DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.033
Journal information: Cell
Provided by Massachusetts General Hospital
Every day the confusion becomes more intense. Lord, when will this nightmare end?
Thanks, but no thanks.
Junk study.
Junk or not, it’s weird to me that this would be published in Cell.
This is ridiculous overkill for essentially trying to cure a common cold virus. 🤦♂️😒😑🙄🦠
They left out the “clammy hands”.
Now they’ll ban DayQuil and NyQuil.
Swell, lockdown 2022.
It will end, or at least take a major change in direction, when a sizable number of Americans decide they are willing to make whatever sacrifice they can to stop the nonsense.
I remain unconvinced Americans have that trait left in their collective DNA.
What the pharmas really want is for us to walk around with insulin pump-type devices that continuously inject us with Coof juice.
When are the US sheep going to learn that slapping the word "study", paid from either a business or a political pressure group does not make this sort of nonsensical propaganda “fact”?
So, the first doses didn’t work but people should try more doses?
Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results.
“The results of this study, reported in the journal Cell, indicate that traditional dosing regimens of COVID-19 vaccines available in the United States do not produce antibodies capable of recognizing and neutralizing the Omicron variant.”
If the vaccine isn’t producing the proper antibodies, it is not the “dosing regimen” that is the problem, it’s the vaccine itself that is the problem. Taking more doses of an ineffective vaccine will not magically make it effective.
Well, if you want to get the public hysterical about a virus that is ever-present and that you’ll never be able to cure, a common cold-type coronavirus would be exactly the virus to pick, wouldn’t it?
Wrong. The nurse practitioner who diagnosed me Monday said vaccinated, boosted and previously infected are all getting omicron. She thinks eventually everybody will catch it. Fortunately most people get sick for about 24-72 hours with mild symptoms.
No.
The spike protein is different between the vax and omicron.
It will be ineffective.
I’ll just blow my nose. Thanks though!
If the bare statement is true - three doses are needed for “immunity” from Omicron - then how come so many folks with the two standard doses and the booster are in fact getting infected and ill with Omicron (I have a brother in that status now).
To state the obvious — if the boosters are the same as the 1st 2 jabs, this would become an ENDLESS series of shots (most likely with diminishing effectiveness with each shot).
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.