Infected with BA.1 Omicron variant It wont protect against newer subvariants study

People infected with the earliest version of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus first identified in South Africa in November may be vulnerable to reinfection with later versions of Omicron even if they have been vaccinated and boosted new findings suggest

Vaccinated patients with Omicron BA.1 breakthrough infections developed antibodies that could neutralize that virus plus the original SARSCoV2 virus but the Omicron sublineages circulating now have mutations that allow them to evade those antibodies researchers from China reported on Friday in Nature

Omicron BA.2.12.1 which is presently causing most infections in the United States and Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 which now account for more than 21 of new US cases contain mutations not present in the BA.1 and BA.2 versions of Omicron

Those newer sublineages notably evade the neutralizing antibodies elicited by SARSCoV2 infection and vaccination the researchers found in testtube experiments

The monoclonal antibody drugs bebtelovimab from Eli Lilly and cilgavimab a component of AstraZenecas Evusheld can still effectively neutralize BA.2.12.1 and BA.4BA.5 the experiments also showed

But vaccine boosters based on the BA.1 virus such as those in development by PfizerBioNTech and Moderna may not achieve broadspectrum protection against new Omicron variants the researchers warned

Previous research that has not yet undergone peer review has suggested that unvaccinated people infected with Omicron are unlikely to develop immune responses that will protect them against other variants of the coronavirus

My personal bias is that while there may be some advantage to having an Omicronspecific vaccine I think it will be of marginal benefit over staying current with the existing vaccines and boosters said Dr Onyema Ogbuagu and infectious diseases researcher at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven Connecticut who was not involved in the new study

Despite immune evasion the expectation can be that vaccines will still protect against serious disease Ogbuagu said If youre due for a booster get a booster What weve learned clinically is that its most important to stay uptodate with vaccines to maintain high levels of COVID19 antibodies circulating in the blood

Adolfo GarciaSastre a microbiology and infectious diseases researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City suggested that better protection might be seen with vaccines that target multiple strains of the virus or with intranasal vaccines that would increase protection from infection and transmission by generating immunity in the lining of the nose where the virus first enters

GarciaSastre who was not involved in the research said by the time one variantspecific vaccine becomes available a new variant may well have taken over