As several countries, especially in the African continent are trying hard to find two shots of vaccines for their citizens, German drugmaker BioNTech SE's executive on Wednesday, said that the interval between the second and third dose of the Covid vaccine is very crucial to protect people from the newly discovered Omicron variant.
Booster shots necessary to protect people from Covid variant
Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin suggested that the interval between the second and third dose of the Covid vaccine can be reduced to three months for better effectiveness against the Omicron variant.
"We believe this is the right way to go forward. It is very clear that our vaccine for the Omicron variant should be a three-dose vaccine," said Sahin.
Study says Omicron likely to evade immunity
Meanwhile, a new study conducted by South African researchers has found that the newly discovered Omicron variant is capable of evading the immunity offered by vaccines. The latest study tried to determine whether "Omicron escapes antibody neutralization elicited by the Pfizer-BNT vaccine and whether the virus still requires binding to the ACE2 receptor to infect cells."
According to the study report, the immunity offered by vaccination can be evaded by the virus, while a combined immunity attained by vaccination and infection may be helpful in protecting people from the attack of the Omicron variant.
Recent statistics from South Africa suggest that the severity of the Omicron variant is not as high as the Delta variant, but the transmissibility is much higher than the Delta variant. It should be noted that the number of fresh cases in South Africa has climbed up by 300 percent, but the death rate is showing a steady decline.
