What the Omicron wave is revealing about human immunity

Is Omicron the end of pandemic or start of a new innings?

“…On the other hand, a third, “booster” dose seems to be helpful. According to a recent study, two weeks after the third booster shot, the protection against infection and serious disease increases from 60 to 70% [ 62 , 63 ]. Vaccination causes a temporary increase in the number of immune cells producing antibodies, which then gradually decreases.…”

Coronavirus Vaccination and Mortality in the Omicron Outbreak in Iran: Mortality Reduction due to Attenuated Pathogenicity and Booster Vaccine Doses

“…The fastest and most accessible ways to protect against the Omicron variant seem to be wearing medical-grade masks and receiving the third dose of vaccine 8 . The protection provided by two shots of vaccines is reduced to less than 40% a few months after the second shot, but the third shot seems to cause about 60 to 70% protection in the two weeks after the injection and protect against severe COVID-19 9 . It has been shown that vaccine efficacy decreases with increasing time after vaccination 3 .…”

Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Nucleocapsid, Spike, and Neutralizing Antibodies in Vaccinated Japanese

“…The comparison of vaccinated and non-vaccinated subjects was skewed ( Table 2 ) because non-vaccinated subjects were rare. In the present study, T cell function stimulated by SARS-CoV-2 in vaccinated participants was not evaluated, although the role of T cells cannot be ignored in immunological systems [ 18 ]. This study evaluated the clinical performance of SARS-CoV-2 Ab assays in vaccinated Japanese a relatively long time after vaccination.…”