WHO says it is unknown if vaccines have reduced effectiveness against omicron

The World Health Organization (WHO) asked not to draw hasty conclusions about the effectiveness of current COVID vaccines against the variant omicron, since the initial data that point to a decrease in immune protection come from laboratory studies and “not from real life”.

“We can understand the great interest and concern around whether vaccines protect against omicron, let’s remember that there was a similar concern when delta appeared,” said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.

He recalled that when the delta variant emerged, it was also said that vaccines were less effective, but later it was understood that these results corresponded to studies carried out in laboratories, while “in real life all vaccines work well when it comes to preventing cases severe and hospitalizations “

Some preliminary studies would indicate that vaccines that use RNA technology (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna) work better against omicron, but the expert considered that this is also a hasty conclusion.

Swaminathan asked to be very careful with these studies and “not to overinterpret the information on the (apparent) reduction in the effectiveness of omicron vaccines”, a variant that appeared in November in southern Africa and has now spread to about 90 countries.

The scientist said that laboratory studies do not take into account other aspects of the immune system of individuals that play an extremely important role when it comes to protecting them against a serious infection.