The study, published on Dec. 15 and titled "Striking Antibody Evasion Manifested by the Omicron Variant of SARS-CoV-2," was written by 20 scientists from Columbia and the University of Hong Kong.
"A striking feature of this variant is the large number of spike mutations that pose a threat to the efficacy of current COVID-19 vaccines and antibody therapies," wrote the researchers.
The researchers believe the variant's "extensive" mutations can "greatly compromise" the supposed protection provided by the COVID-19 vaccines. They believe the variant can even neutralize this so-called protection.
The study tested blood samples from people fully vaccinated with the four largest brands of COVID-19 vaccine in the west – Pfizer, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson. They also studied individuals who had received a booster from one of the two mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
The study found that there was a 21-fold drop in the amount of neutralizing antibodies deployed against omicron after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. For two doses of Moderna, it was an 8.6-fold drop in antibodies.
For the blood of those fully vaccinated with the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, the neutralizing effect was so low that it was nearly undetectable. This confirms what many have known all along that these vaccines offer virtually no protection against the post-vaccine omicron variant. (Related: J&J vaccine found to produce ZERO antibodies against omicron strain… vaccine is now worthless.)
The results of the study are "in line with emerging clinical data on the omicron variant demonstrating higher rates of reinfection and vaccine breakthroughs," noted the authors.
Boosters unlikely to help against omicron
When the researchers were testing the effect of the omicron variant on people who have received booster doses of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, they found that the supposed protective ability given by these vaccines was still significantly less when pitted against the omicron variant.
"Even a third booster shot may not adequately protect against omicron infection," noted the study.
Lead researcher Dr. David Ho of Columbia said the study delivers a grave warning regarding the future of COVID-19 and its variants.
"It's not too far-fetched to think that this [COVID-19] is now only a mutation or two away from being pan-resistant to current antibodies," he wrote in the study.
But rather than recommending non-vaccine-based alternatives to protecting against the coronavirus, Ho instead believes researchers like himself need to come together to figure out how to anticipate the evolutionary direction of the coronavirus "and develop agents that target better conserved viral elements." This means creating new vaccines.
Public health authorities are also recommending people get more vaccinations despite all scientific evidence pointing out that this will not help. White House Chief Medical Advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci insisted booster vaccinations will still offer extremely high protection against hospitalization and death from the omicron variant.
"Our booster vaccine regimens work against omicron. At this point, there is no need for a variant-specific booster," said Fauci during one of his regular COVID-19 updates as he urged Americans to get a third dose of the experimental and deadly vaccines.
"If you're unvaccinated, you need to get vaccinated to diminish your vulnerability, and if you are vaccinated, get boosted," he added.
Fauci himself was amazed by the omicron variant's "extraordinary" ability to spread through communities, regardless of vaccination status. He revealed that omicron COVID-19 cases in the United States are expected to double every three days.
"Certainly, what [omicron] is showing us in other countries [is that it spreads faster than other variants] and I believe soon in our own country," he said during an interview.
"It has an extraordinary ability to transmit efficiently and spread. It has what we call a doubling time of around three days," he continued. "And if you do the math on that, if you have just a couple of percentage of the isolates being omicron, very soon it's going to be the dominant variant. We've seen that in South Africa, we're seeing it in the U.K. and I'm absolutely certain that's what we're going to be seeing here relatively soon."
Listen to this Situation Update episode of the "Health Ranger Report," a podcast by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, as he explains how the post-vaccine omicron variant could actually be the solution to the pandemic.
Follow Vaccines.news for more news related to the coronavirus vaccines.
Sources include:
bioRxiv.org [PDF]
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