Quote:One of the first to report was Dr Alex Sigal at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. His team confirmed that Omicron largely escaped antibodies from vaccines or past infection, withantibodies following the Pfizer shot 41 times less effective against Omicron than the original Covid-19 virus. Other data from South Africa, and soon from around the world, showed that Omicron spread like wildfire, doubling every two to three days. As Prof Chris Whitty, England’s chief medical officer, phrased it: “There are several things we don’t know, but all the things that we do know are bad.”
As the infection spread, the UKHSA crunched early numbers to show that two doses of Covid vaccine did little to prevent symptomatic infection, though a booster kicked protection up to about 70%. On Friday, two reports from Prof Neil Ferguson’s group at Imperial College rounded out the picture. Their findings are tentative, but suggest a booster provides 80-86% protection against hospitalisation from Omicron. That is good from an individual perspective, but compares with 95% for Delta. The upshot is that hospitalisation rates for boosted people could be four times higher with Omicron. The science is clear: the case for more Covid restrictions is overwhelming | Health policy | The Guardian
Quote:People who catch Covid after having two vaccine doses could develop even better immunity against the virus, new research suggests.People who get Covid while double-vaccinated ‘may get super-immunity’ | The Independent
A study that examined the blood of 26 people who had so-called breakthrough infections of Covid after double vaccination developed as much as 1,000 per cent more effective and abundant antibodies, creating a form of “super-immunity”, researchers said.