A 10-year-old child will be vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine on November 2, 2021 at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut.
Joseph Prezioso | AFP | Getty Images
Pfizer When BioNTech on Tuesday, COVID Due to growing concern that the omicron variant cannot tolerate infections and mild illnesses caused by strains discovered about two months ago in the current shot.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC earlier this month that the company will have a vaccine targeting Omicron by March. The vaccine will also target other circulating Covid variants, Bourla said.
BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin says there is growing data showing that the effectiveness of current vaccines against Omicron infections and mild to moderate illnesses is rapidly declining compared to previous strains. Said. The goal is to develop a vaccine that provides lasting protection against Omicron, Sahin said in a statement on Tuesday.
A study published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that booster vaccination with Pfizer was 90% effective in preventing hospitalization by Omicron 14 days after the third injection. ..
The booster effect is also up to 75% effective in preventing symptomatic infections by Omicron 2-4 weeks after the third injection, according to data from the UK Health and Security Agency released earlier this month. However, this study found that boosters were significantly weakened after about 10 weeks, providing 45% to 50% protection against symptomatic infections.
“Current research and actual data show that boosters continue to provide a high level of protection against serious disease and hospitalization from Omicron, but in case this protection diminishes over time. “Omicron and new variants of the future,” said Kathrin Jansen, head of vaccine development at Pfizer, in a statement.
The Pfizer and BioNTech clinical trials will evaluate up to 1,420 participants between the ages of 18 and 55. In addition to the evaluation of the Omicron vaccine, some people receive a fourth dose of the current vaccine.
Bourla told CNBC earlier this month that he didn’t know if he needed an Omicron-specific vaccine now or how it would be used. But Pfizer said the vaccine was ready because many countries are looking for it as soon as possible.
“We want to achieve something that provides much better protection, especially against infectious diseases,” says Bourla.
There are dozens of mutations in Omicron variants, many of which are found in the pesplomers that viruses use to invade human cells. The current vaccine, developed in 2020 against the original strain, targets spikes. Vaccine-inducing antibodies will be more difficult to block the virus as spikes will mutate further from the original strain detected in Wuhan, China.
First detected in Botswana and South Africa in November, Omicron spread more rapidly than previous variants, causing an unprecedented wave of infection worldwide.
World Health Organization Director Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes on Monday Over 80 million Covid cases It has been reported to WHO since the variant of Omicron was identified only 9 weeks ago. This is more than reported for 2020 as a whole.
But in general, people are less ill from Omicron than the Delta type. However, because Omicron is mutated far away from the original strain, the vaccine was developed to fight, causing milder breakthrough infections, a service that is essential as many call it a disease. It raises concerns that it may lead to a breakthrough.
