Sinopharm's Covid booster dose has been shown to generate weaker immune responses against the new highly transmissible Omicron variant, which is known to evade vaccine efficacy. The hyper-mutated Omicron variant of concern has spread to approximately 90 countries, raising serious concerns about vaccine efficacy and the risk of re-infection.

Researchers from Shanghai Jiao Tong University and a Shanghai-based lab specialising in respiratory infectious diseases conducted a study in which they compared the activity of Sinopharm's booster vaccine against an older coronavirus strain from Wuhan. The yet-to-be peer-reviewed study found that the neutralising antibody activity of a Sinopharm BBIBP-CorV booster against Omicron was reduced by 20.1-fold when compared to its activity against a Wuhan strain.

The study included 292 healthcare workers who were given a third homologous boosting vaccination eight to nine months after the priming two-dose inactivated vaccination. The researchers wanted to see if the newly discovered Omicron variant could avoid serum antibody neutralisation caused by the booster vaccination.

According to the findings, a third booster dose of BBIBP-CorV results in a significant rebound in neutralising immune response against SARS-CoV-2. On day 28, after the third booster dose, the neutralisation titer was 6.1 times higher than on day 28 after the second dose.

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