Have you been waiting to get vaccinated? Now is the time, according to experts

Determine the effectiveness of vaccines COVID-19 Against the new omicron variant it will take a while; “We are still learning” about the delta variant and its influence on these preparations, according to experts, who remind those who have been waiting to be vaccinated that now is the time to do so.

“It takes time to get these analyzes right and, in addition, you have to carefully examine the data and control for all kinds of biases and confounders in observational studies; It will take a while to find out, ”says Adam Lauring of the infectious diseases division at the University of Michigan in the United States.

The researcher suspects that circulating antibodies probably will not neutralize omicron as well as they did with the original SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, but “it is pure prediction and speculation,” he notes, and “I would not be surprised if there was some erosion in the effectiveness of vaccines against infection ”.

“I am much more optimistic that the effectiveness of the vaccine will continue against severe disease,” he adds.

Lauring participated in a debate organized by Jama Network on the new omicron variant with Carlos del Río, from the infectious diseases division of the Emory University School of Medicine, also in the United States. The discussion took place on December 1, and the magazine has now published a summary of it.

Both highlight the importance of vaccination. Del Río insists that fighting misinformation is vitally important: I hope omicron is another opportunity to tell people to get vaccinated.

In the United States there are people against vaccines who are not going to be vaccinated no matter what, but “there are a large number of individuals that I believe are still in the stage of doubt, waiting and seeing.”

“Okay, you’ve been waiting to get vaccinated, well now is the time. When – these people – say what I can do in relation to omicron, I say: get vaccinated, and if you have already done it, ask for a booster ”.

As for the origin of the variant, it was sequenced for the first time in South Africa and where and how it arose is still unknown; one of the things being discussed is whether it appeared in someone whose immune system is weakened.

Del Río details that one of the theories is that the evolution occurred in a person with HIV, with severe immunosuppression and who was infected with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time, perhaps more than 300 days.

By not being able to eliminate the virus, it continually multiplies and mutates in that environment; that could have led to this variant, says Del Río, who points out that immunocompromised patients are also, among others, transplant recipients. It is important to vaccinate all of them.

Lauring asks in this sense not to stigmatize these people: “I think we have to be very careful when talking about the variants in these hosts and what to do about it.”

One of the things that has attracted the attention of the scientific community of this variant is the large number of mutations – about 35 – in the spicule protein -protein S-, the one used by the coronavirus to enter the human cell.

“With so many mutations in the spicule it is clear that there has been a lot of evolution and adaptation in that protein,” says Lauring, for whom there are two main hypotheses about the origin of omicron.

In addition to that of the immunocompromised host, the other, to which less attention has been paid – he says – is the possibility of what is called reverse zoonosis, according to which SARS-CoV-2 has passed to other animals over time. .

“The idea is that it would evolve differently in an animal host than in a person and then it could re-enter the human population as a different coronavirus.”

According to Lauring, right now it is not known which of the two options is more likely, but there has been a lot of evolution in omicron.