The World Health Organization official said that there is no reason why the vaccines applied against Covid-19 so far should not be effective against the Omicron variant.
The announcement was made after the first results of a small-scale study in South Africa arrived.
The researchers say that there is a “big decrease” in the effectiveness of the antibodies produced by the vaccines against the new variants.
But speaking to the AFP news agency, WHO emergency director Mike Ryan said there is no indication that Omicron is more potent against vaccines than other variants:
“We have very strong vaccines against all variants to date that have proven effective given the reduction in hospitalizations and deaths. We have no reason to assume that this will not be the case for Omicron.”
Reminding that according to the initial data, the Omicron variant does not make people sick more than Delta and other variants, Dr. “If there’s a difference, it’s that the symptoms are milder,” Ryan said.
A recent small study in South Africa that has not yet been evaluated by other experts also found that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may be 40 times less effective against Omicron than other variants.
Conducting the research from the African Institute of Health Research, Prof. Dr. Alex Sigal stated that they have not yet reached clear data on Omicron’s capacity to evade vaccine-developed antibodies.
As a result of the study on blood samples taken from 12 people, Prof. Sigal said he had “better results than expected with the Omicron.”
Accordingly, although the effectiveness of antibodies decreased in people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccine, it was observed that antibodies that provide serious protection against Omicron were formed in people who received two doses of vaccine after being infected with Covid-19 disease. This suggests that 3rd dose booster vaccines will significantly increase protection against Omicron.
More detailed and precise information on how effective the Pfizer vaccine is against the Omicron variant will be announced in the coming days.
There is no descriptive data on Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and other vaccines yet.
Omicron is the most mutated coronavirus variant to date. Due to the variant that first appeared in South Africa, there is a serious increase in the number of people who have been caught with Covid-19 several times in the country today.
The spokesperson of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson also announced that there are data that Omicron is more contagious than the Delta variant. However, there is no clear data that Omicron causes more severe disease.
The US’s top consultant on infectious diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that according to the preliminary results of the studies, Omicron is a variant that is more contagious but shows milder symptoms.
According to Johns Hopkins University data, there have been 267 million cases worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic, that is, in the nearly two years; More than 5 million people died due to Covid-19.