US Study Says Omicron Variant Is More Contagious Than Delta, Vaccine May Not Be Effective Without Booster Dose

JAKARTA - All three COVID-19 vaccines approved by US authorities appear to be significantly less protective against the newly detected Omicron variant of the coronavirus in laboratory testing, but booster doses likely restore most of the protection, according to a study released on Friday. Tuesday.

The study from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Harvard and MIT, which has not yet been peer reviewed, tested blood from people who received Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer BioNTech vaccines against pseudoviruses engineered to resemble the Omicron variant.

15, the researchers found neutralization of "low to no" antibodies to variants of the regular regimen of all three vaccines, two injections of Moderna or Pfizer BioNTech vaccines or one of J&J's single-dose vaccines.

However, blood from recent recipients of an additional booster dose showed strong neutralization of variance, the study found.

The scientists also noted that the Omicron variant was more infectious than the variants of prior concern, including being about twice as infectious as the currently dominant Delta variant, which may soon be overtaken by the Omicron variant. The results are in line with other recently published studies. . Researchers at the University of Oxford said Monday they found the two-dose Pfizer and AstraZeneca (AZN.L) COVID-19 vaccine regimen did not induce sufficient neutralizing antibodies against the new variant.

Meanwhile, BioNTech and Pfizer said last week, three doses of their COVID-19 vaccine were able to neutralize the new Omicron variant in laboratory tests, but two doses produced significantly lower neutralizing antibodies.

Meanwhile, Moderna and J&J have not released their own data on how the vaccine performs against the new variant. J&J declined to comment on the new study and Moderna did not respond to requests for comment.