Laboratory Study : 3 Doses of Pfizer, BioNTech neutralises Omicron
Preliminary lab studies show two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine may not provide sufficient protection against the Omicron coronavirus variant, but three doses are able to neutralise it, the companies said in a news release.
Based on the preliminary data Pfizer said that a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron. These antibody levels are associated with high efficacy against both the wild-type virus and these variants
However, a study from the Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa has found that the variant can partially escape the protection offered by the two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. “There is a very large drop in neutralisation of Omicron by BNT162b2 immunity relative to the ancestral virus,” said Alex Sigal, a professor at the research institute.
