Early lab results suggest existing vaccines could be less effective
against the fast-spreading coronavirus variant, but boosters should
improve immunity.

The fast-spreading Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant is highly likely to
compromise some of the protection from vaccines, suggest the first
laboratory studies of Omicron�??s ability to evade immunity.

But the preliminary results �?? released overnight by teams in South
Africa, Germany, and Sweden, as well as the Pfizer-BioNtech
collaboration �?? hint that protection conferred by existing COVID-19
vaccines won�??t be totally wiped out, and that boosters should improve
immunity to Omicron.

�??We�??re likely to see reduced effectiveness of vaccines against
preventing infection,�?� says Penny Moore, a virologist at the University
of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who co-authored one of
the studies. �??I think it�??s a strong argument to get boosters out there.�?�

The studies, which measure the capacity of antibodies in people�??s blood
to block the infection of cells in a dish, have not yet been peer
reviewed, and do not tell researchers the extent to which vaccines�??
ability to protect against COVID-19 �?? in particular, its most severe
forms �?? could be compromised by Omicron.

�??We still need to wait for more effectiveness data and clear signals
from the places where this is blowing up first,�?� says Ben Murrell, an
interdisciplinary virologist and immunologist at the Karolinska
Institute in Stockholm, who co-led one of the studies.

Omicron likely to weaken COVID vaccine protection (nature.com)
[www.nature.com]