Pfizer Vaccine May Partially Protect Against Omicron: Study

jpnn.com, AFRIKA - Two doses of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine do not provide full protection against the Omicron Covid-19 variant, according to the results of a laboratory study by the African Health Research Institute in South Africa, the country where the variant was first discovered.

However, the study also showed that blood from people who received two doses of Pfizer vaccine and were previously infected with Covid-19 had a high chance of neutralizing the variant.

Therefore, the study suggested that booster doses of the vaccine could help fend off infection.

Alex Sigal, a lecturer at the African Health Research Institute, said on Twitter that there was a "large drop" in neutralizing the Omicron variant when compared to previous Covid-19 strains.

The lab tested the blood of 12 people who had been vaccinated with two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to a text on the lab's website. The initial data in the manuscript has not been reviewed in groups.

The blood of five of the six people who had been vaccinated and previously infected with Covid-19 still neutralized the Omicron variant, according to the manuscript.

"These results are better than I expected. The more antibodies you got, the more chance you'll be protected from Omicron," Sigal said.

He said the laboratory had not tested the variant against the blood of people who had already received a booster dose because they were not in South Africa yet.