People infected with Omicron ‘are less likely to get another variant if vaccinated’

Signboard for testing for COVID-19 at Logan International Airport in Boston, Massachusetts, USA (photo taken on November 22, 2021) – Photo: REUTERS

Accordingly, millions of people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 and subsequently contracted the Omicron variant may not soon be infected with other variants and develop severe symptoms.

These results were published by researchers at the biotech company BioNTech (Germany) and the University of Washington (USA) on bioRxiv, a repository of unverified studies.

Professor John Wherry, director of the Institute of Immunology at the University of Pennsylvania, said that a breakthrough COVID-19 infection, that is, getting COVID-19 after vaccination, is essentially as protective as a vaccine. increase. Therefore, people with recent COVID-19 infections can wait a while before getting their next booster shot if they wish.

The above studies are published in the context that the Omicron variant is continuing to cause COVID-19 outbreaks around the world, especially in the city of Shanghai (China).

Omicron is highly contagious and mutated as countries relax restrictions, increasing the risk of new variants emerging, said Sam Fazeli, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.

Currently, regulatory agencies are considering whether to update the COVID-19 vaccine to a specific version against the Omicron variant.