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
So we need an additional shot of a treatment that does not work? What was that old definition of insanity again?
Something doesn’t add up. The main reasons for pushing MRNA vaccines included the ability to tweak the genetic code as new variants emerge. They are still using the original sequence in the boosters. It seems that the only way a booster helps now is that your immune system produces enough
antibodies immediately after injection to fight an active infection.
Thanks to Null and Void for the above reality.
Covid Vaccines/boosters are now for ever, from now to eternity?!
Thanks to Sans-Culotte for this needed dose of Vaccine/Booster Reality versus the daily mediot B$ insanity of Vaccine$/Booster$!!
Thanks to Travis for the above.
My early 50s SIL just was hospitalized last Friday for this “cold”. Fortunately, she got the antibody infusion and should hopefully pull through OK. But the question is what long term damage did it do to her? WebMD reports 43% of all COVID cases have long term effects.
While Omicron may not get into the lungs AS OFTEN as Delta, it’s still crushing our hospitals. Local hospital chain here is “reaching it’s breaking point” per local paper today. COVID patients have increased ~40% over the past week - most unvaxxed, although a few (< 10%) boostered.
Here’s a quote from the article that stresses how serious Omicron can be (far more than “a cold”):
“The omicron variant “is one of the most contagious viruses we have seen in our lifetime,” said Dr. Nick Gilpin, Beaumont Health’s medical director of infection prevention and epidemiology. The hospital system believes the majority of the COVID patients being treated at Beaumont have the “juggernaut” omicron variant, he said.
Our side has trivialized the virus for the past 2 years. And that’s IMHO a big part of why we’re still all stuck dealing with it - a lot of people on our side just won’t take it seriously enough to do everything they can to beat it back, and insist on living like it’s 2019..if you’re one of those people, odds are pretty high you’ll get exposed to Omicron at one point. And if/when you do, better hope your expectation that “it’s a cold” is right, cuz that’s not what many including my SIL are finding.
The boosters have been available since late August or early September, and most hard-core vaccine enthusiasts have had them already, to no avail as far as omicron is concerned. I guess they are talking about yet another booster. And another. And another.
In our current medical system, Is there anything a booster in NOT the solution for?
"And Vitamin D – the studies all show – Vitamin D3 levels between 50 and 70 virtually eliminate hospitalizations or admissions in the intensive care unit. It optimizes their immune system..so you need Vitamin D, then you need Zinc, which is the bullet. And then to form a functioning gun, you need Vitamin C and quercetin…Dr. Zelenko
“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.”
but another booster of the same shite that makes more of exactly the same antibodies that don’t recognize omicron somehow works like magic to recognize omicron ...
“Something doesn’t add up. ... They are still using the original sequence in the boosters.”
They have surplus and need to sell what’s in the fridge.
And here’s some more ‘inside’ info from someone on another (financial) forum I follow.
Since it’s a financial forum, it tends to not be political. And if you get political, the Mods smack it down. So pretty decent chance this is actually what this person is experiencing..
________________________________
Some sobering updates from our morning staff meeting:
Our hospital system (major multi-hospital network in NJ) now has the highest ever number of patients hospitalized for COVID. Our ICUs are at capacity and they are starting to convert other patient rooms into additional ICU beds. They are talking about reactivating the disaster surge plan which could reassign staff and providers (including me) to the hospitals to help with the excess volume. All elective surgeries are cancelled. Zero visitor policy is back in effect. As of yesterday, there were at least 100 patients being held in the ERs awaiting admission but there’s just nowhere to put them.
But not to worry. Omicron is mild. Not a big deal at all.
__________________________
Poster has a long history on the forum with nearly 1,000 posts. They have no reason to make things up so I have high confidence this is what they are actually experiencing.
Just watched a local hospital association briefing (for WA) where a hospital administrator said most of their covid patients are unvaxed, then he corrected himself to say unboosted.
In WA it seems that the unboosted are considered unvaxed now.
In other words, no one will never be fully vaccinated. The best one can hope for is to be up to date.
Pure BS! Everyone now knows that the boosters either don’t work or does work in getting you infected with the fungyou flu!
What a rebranding opportunity!
"COVID-Omicron Magic Elixir! Day and Nighttime varieties!"
Now just $27.95 and $29.95!"
(...instead of the previous $4.95.)
Any comorbidities with your SIL?
Exactly who is "Our side"?
There is a lot of data and anecdotal experience that this virus can be mitigated in most people by early treatment with simple inexpensive medications and supplements.
This information has not only not been shared, it's been actively suppressed by the media, government and medical establishment in lieu of:
"wear a mask, and when that doesn't work and you catch Covid, go home and take some Tylenol. Come back if {when) you can't breathe"
"Take these shots....they won't work, so you will need to them again and again."
"And oh, by the way, they have a chance of killing or maiming you, but you didn't hear that from us. Now give it to your kids"
SO who exactly has been trivializing the virus??????
Not that I know of.
I also know plenty of people who have had COVID pretty rough that are healthy as horses otherwise.
Net, I think we’ve overplayed the “only the elderly and infirm get hit hard by COVID” as that hasn’t been what I’ve seen happen in my own circle of friends and family, or what I’ve read others saying have happened to them..
I’m most assuredly on our side.
Early in the “pandemic,” my doc said I didn’t need vax because he knows that I’ve been taking 8 - 10 supplements/day , everything now recommended and more to boost immunity. Been taking them every morning for the last 50 years. Read the right books then and have a very strong immune system.
I don’t think you can catch up by starting to take those supplements now. If my doc had any doubts about state of my immune system, I’d get shots. I’m 85 and not one single person thinks I look that old, even 60-year-old guys who flirt with me. . Good health makes everything better.
Stay strong, my FRiend.
Or just ignore the whole scamdemic. 😎
OmniCrud the newest and fastest acting variant has been very busy in the SF North Bay area with friends/family that we know.
My wife and I may have been among the first to get and recover from Omnicrud. We probably got it from a 50 something son in mid December 2021. It was like a bad cold. He had his basic 2 shots of the Moderna and its booster. Both the first 2 shots hammered him and then post his recent booster in the Middle of December. His newest crud was very vicious in spite all of his vaccinations, also possibly and having the original Crud a little before everyone got it in 2019.
My wife has heard of 3 other families spread around the N. Bay area getting the new crud. People of all ages from 3 to mid 80’s got and recovered from the latest crud.
No one has gone to a hospital or ER. They treated this crud like they would treat a cold, with bed rest, liquids, staying at home and doing basically nothing activity wise.
Again, no one has died or even been to an ER nor a doctor’s office. Basically there has been zero interaction between these 3 groups and us before the Crud hit.
We celebrated a late Christmas and New Years on 2 January this year. 3 families, 8 people, including one college student and one RN living and working on the East coast. So a lot of mileage separating our little group, and so far nothing. Zero masks, some without any vaccines or possible previous crud, besides my wife/me and the 50 something son, no crud with any of us before nor since our celebration.
So far zilch/nothing.
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