Original title: is the existing vaccine ineffective for Omicron? It's too early to say
On November 26 local time, who held an emergency meeting to discuss the new crown variant strain of b.1.1.529. After the meeting, who issued a statement, listing it as the highest level "variant of concern" and named it Omicron. Only two days have passed since the variant was found.
Scientists say that the Omicron variant carries a worrying mutation, which may make it spread rapidly, even among vaccinated people; but scientists also agree that more research is needed to know its impact on vaccinated people and determine how much threat it poses.
According to the New York Times, William hanage, an epidemiologist at Harvard T.H. Chan School of public health, said:
Epidemiologists are saying, "don't worry too much. Relax (easy, tiger!)."
This may be bad, but we don't know enough yet.
Dr. hanage and other researchers said that the vaccine is still most likely to resist the attack of Omicron virus, but further research is needed to determine how much the effectiveness of the vaccine may be reduced.
Credit Suisse analyst Jo Walton said that all vaccines currently approved focus on spike proteins, so their protective effect may be slightly weaker, but mRNA vaccines should have stronger protection.
Because the mRNA vaccine only transmits the genetic code in the human fat vesicles, and then uses the body as a "factory" to produce the proteins that the immune system needs to recognize. These genetic codes can be exchanged quickly, and there is no need to slowly cultivate cells like other types of vaccines - this process is very time-consuming.
Meanwhile, vaccine manufacturers are engaged in a familiar contest.
According to people familiar with the matter, Johnson & Johnson said it was already testing a vaccine against the strain, and scientists at Oxford University expected more information about the virus soon.
AstraZeneca also said it had conducted research in Botswana and Swati Ni to estimate the effectiveness of its vaccine against the country.
Pfizer and BioNTech have launched a survey of COVID-19's new variants and said they expected to get the first batch of experimental data on how to interact with the vaccine in two weeks.
They conducted the same laboratory tests on alpha, beta and delta strains. AstraZeneca will soon announce the results of its first improved vaccine against beta variants, and Pfizer and biontech are conducting trials of vaccines against alpha and delta variants.
Moderna also said on Friday that it was studying whether increasing the current vaccine dose was effective for Omicron, and the experimental data may be obtained in the next few weeks. At the same time, the company also said that it was developing a vaccine specifically for Omicron, which is likely to be available in early 2022. In terms of research and development speed, Moderna said that the company can usually deliver the new vaccine within 60 to 90 days The experimental vaccine was put into test.
In addition, many institutions, including companies such as GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), also urgently tested whether Omicron could avoid antibody treatment in the laboratory.
Barclays said on Friday that some new drugs may work. For example, antiviral drugs such as new pills being developed and tested by Pfizer and other companies may still be effective. The reason is that these pills act on cells in a different way from vaccines. They do not target viral spike proteins like vaccines and other previous therapies, but treat diseases in different ways The virus attacks and prevents the virus from proliferating, making it unlikely that the new variant will resist such pills. The agency said:
No mutation indicates a change in susceptibility.
Who calls for enhanced surveillance of the mutant virus and laboratory experiments to better understand its biological characteristics.
At the press conference, Dr. Tulio de Oliveira, director of the epidemic response and innovation center in South Africa, said:
This variant does surprise us, but its full meaning is still uncertain.