Scientists at Oxford University discovered that the hyper mutated Omicron Covid variant, which is known to resist vaccine efficacy, cannot be stopped with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 shots.
Blood samples from 28 people who had previously received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, as well as a live virus isolate, were used in the yet-to-be peer-reviewed study, which was released on the preprint server MedRxiv. They discovered a "significant drop in neutralising titres," which is a measure of the amount of neutralising antibodies produced in response to Covid-19 immunisation or infection.
The researchers concluded that the Omicron variety has the potential to generate a new wave of infections, including among people who have already been vaccinated, albeit there is currently no evidence of an elevated risk of severe disease, hospitalizations, or deaths in vaccinated populations.
These findings are also consistent with recent data from the UK Health Security Agency, which shows that the Omicron variation of these vaccinations had a lower efficacy against symptomatic disease than the Delta variant. Importantly, a third dosage of vaccination increased the vaccine's effectiveness. "These findings will enable those designing vaccines and vaccination methods in determining the best routes to safeguard their populations," said main author Professor Gavin Screaton, Head of the University's Medical Sciences Division.
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