The variant of coronaviruses could lead to more infections among vaccinated people but they will most likely be protected from a severe course of illness, according to the inventor of one of the first COVID 19 vaccines.
The virus will likely remain susceptible to immune cells that destroy it once it enters the body, BioNTech SE co-founder Ugur Sahin said.
The plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot, according to Dr. Sahin in an interview Tuesday.
According to the current knowledge on the mechanisms behind the vaccine and the biology of variants, he assumed that people would have a high level of protection against severe disease, even if they were infected by the omicron variant.
Dr. Sahin said that the vaccine he invented in January 2020 and then developed with Inc. has been proven to protect against severe disease against other variants of the coronaviruses that do infect people.
Delta, the currently common variant, has proven to be more adept at infecting people than earlier variants, but most people experience only mild symptoms, according to Dr. Sahin.
BioNTech and Pfizer have developed a vaccine that offers two distinct layers of protection against the virus, like most other vaccines.
The first includes antibodies that prevent people from becoming infected in the first place by preventing viruses from colonizing healthy cells in the body.
Antibodies start to wane around five months after the second dose of vaccination, according to studies. The high number of mutations makes it likely that omicron will be better at circumventing the antibodies generated after contact with the vaccine than delta, according to Dr. Sahin.
The second layer of protection comprises T-cells, immune cells in the body that mobilize to destroy infected cells after an infection has occurred.
A person who gets infected will typically experience mild symptoms. Dr. Sahin said that no variant has so far eluded that immune response of the T-cell, and that omicron was unlikely to achieve what is known as immune escape in that regard.
He said that the vaccines work against omicrons because there is a second level of immune response that protects the T-cells from severe disease.
Even as an escape variant, the virus won't be able to completely evade the T-cells. Dr. Sahin s comments came after Moderna Inc. Chief Executive St phane Bancel told the Financial Times that he expected that the current COVID 19 vaccines would be less effective at tackling the omicron variant.
In two shots, the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine was originally administered, but in recent months many countries, including the U.S. started a booster shot after studies showed that people who had received three doses had significantly stronger immunity.
Dr. Sahin welcomed the decision by U.K. authorities to give the third dose to adults only three months after they had received the second shot.
The U.K. strongly believes that the third shot offers even better protection, and that's why it brings it forward, Dr. Sahin said.
He said that people have a high level of protection against severe disease because they are protected against severe disease, which increases significantly when they receive the third dose.
Dr. Sahin said that he was conducting laboratory tests to see if the omicron variant could infect people who had been vaccinated. He said that the tests, which started last week and take about two weeks to produce results, won't show whether omicron causes severe disease; this can only be evidenced in real-life clinical practice.
Sahin estimated that bringing an adjusted vaccine to market that specifically targets omicron would take about 100 days, but he said that this might not be necessary.
We need to stick to this plan and speed it up, because we have a plan to administer a third shot to people. Later, this remains to be seen whether or not we will need extra protection by an adapted vaccine, or not, according to Dr. Sahin.
He said it is too early to say whether populations would need to be vaccinated regularly for the foreseeable future to maintain a high level of immunity.
As a result of the surge in infection figures, countries like Germany may need to impose restrictions in addition to speeding up the booster program, according to Dr. Sahin.
He said that some measures can push down infection figures relatively quickly. In the current situation, I am in favor of effective measures.