Study: Pfizer vaccine much less effective against omicron

Researchers found 40 times fewer antibodies to fight new variant than delta

By Art Moore
Published December 8, 2021 at 2:39pm

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Army Sgt. Heidy Bucheli, noncommissioned officer in charge of anesthesiology at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, prepares a COVID-19 vaccination for children ages 5 to 11 at LRMC in Landstuhl, Germany, Nov. 18, 2021. LRMC, the largest American hospital overseas, began COVID-19 vaccinations for children ages 5 to 11, becoming one of the first military treatment facilities overseas to vaccinate that patient population. (U.S. Dept. of Defense photo by Marcy Sanchez)

As President Biden urges Americans to get booster shots to protect themselves against omicron, a new study indicates the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is considerably less effective against the new variant.

There are 40 times fewer antibodies in recipients of the Pfizer vaccine to fight omicron than there are for other variants, according to a pre-print study made available Tuesday by researchers at the African Health Research Institute.

So far, the omicron variant, detected in at least 19 U.S. states and nearly 50 countries since the Thanksgiving holiday, appears to be much more contagious than the common delta strain but milder in its impact, according to researchers. 

The omicron variant has more mutations than any other variant, with a total of 50, including 30 on its spike protein, which is the part of the virus targeted by the vaccines.

The participants in the study were vaccinated but had not received a booster shot.

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Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson are both working on a vaccine to target omicron. 

Moderna said it’s developing a booster shot for omicron that could be ready by March.

'On Wednesday, BioNTech CEO Ugur Sahin said that when the new omicron vaccine comes out, people will probably need three shots to be fully vaccinated. 

That means those who are getting a booster shot now likely will need to have a total of six shots to comply with the official guidance.

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However, Kyle Lamb, a researcher for Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, pointed out that in South Africa, where about 75% of the cases are omicron, the fatality rate has gone down.