Omi Keron "Thunder is heavy and rain is little"? There are two prerequisites for the normalization of the epidemic

Experts said that there are reasons to believe that the current vaccine will still be "very effective" against "Omi Keron", and the mutant strain poses a greater risk to people who have not been vaccinated.

　　The emergence of the new crown variant "Omi Keron" made some people who were originally prepared to receive booster vaccines hesitate. They were worried that the existing vaccines would not be effective against the virus variant strains, and hope to wait until specific vaccines against the variant strains appear before vaccinating boosters.

　　In response to this concern of some people, experts said that there are reasons to believe that the current vaccine will still be "very effective" against "Omi Keron", and the mutant strain poses a greater risk to people who have not been vaccinated.

　　Although vaccine manufacturers have stated that they are ready to launch vaccines against new variants at the beginning of next year, more and more experts believe that from the existing data, "Omi Keron" does not seem to be terrible. The vaccine is sufficient.

　　Andy Slavitt, a former senior adviser to the Biden administration's new crown virus response team, said that the current vaccine is still effective against "Omi Keron."

"We must further understand how Omi Keron will spread in an environment dominated by Delta." Slavitt said.

　　"From the existing data, the Omi Keron mutant has not been as popular as Delta, and it has not yet reached the stage where it is necessary to concentrate on dealing with this new mutant." A public health expert told a reporter from China Business News. .

　　Before the US stock market on Monday, vaccine manufacturers Moderna, BioNTech (BioNTech) shares fell nearly 5%, and Novavax shares fell nearly 3%.

　　Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said at a press conference of the White House Covid-19 Response Team: “Research shows that vaccination against the original Covid-19 strain can increase the number of vaccines against all Covid-19 variants. And antibody levels, including Omi Keron variants, provide a certain degree of cross-protection to fight serious diseases."

　　At present, more than one-third of the states in the United States have found cases of "Omi Keron", but these cases are still mainly mild.

According to a report from the World Health Organization last weekend, there are currently no reported deaths due to "Omi Keron" infection worldwide.

　　Jerome Kim, director of the International Institute of Vaccines, said that "Omi Keron" causes milder symptoms compared with other variants. This may be due to "pre-existing immune response", because many People everywhere have been vaccinated or have been infected with the new crown.

　　"We really can't judge whether the Omi Keron mutant strain will cause more serious diseases in the natural environment without these immunity." Jin said.

　　In France, "Omi Keron" is also "thunder and rain."

People's worries about it were quickly replaced by news of the general election.

So far, 25 cases of infection with "Omi Keron" have been found in France, but experts in that country say that the delta variant is still dominant.

　　In the “Parisian” column, Alain Fisher, chairman of the French Vaccine Strategy Committee and professor of immunology, said that there is no reason to wait for a vaccine specifically for the "Omi Keron" variant to appear. It should be now Go for booster.

Delta-led

　　"Our main enemy today is the delta variant, which accounts for 97% to 98% of French infections." Fisher said, "In the context of the rapid increase in the spread of the virus, we still benefit from being safe against this variant. Effective vaccines, so booster doses are necessary."

　　Fisher also said that compared with people who did not receive the booster, the risk of severe new crown disease after the booster was reduced by 20 times.

He emphasized that boosters can provide immediate protection, which is different from waiting two weeks after the initial immunization to obtain the best protective effect of antibodies.

"The effect of the third dose is almost instant." Fisher said.

　　However, some experts said that repeated use of the same virus strain for primary immunization and booster immunization may limit people's ability to produce immune responses to future virus mutations.

Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, described a phenomenon called “primitive antigen sin” by immunologists in which the body’s immune system depends on the first encounter. When it comes to the memory of the virus, when it encounters another virus, it sometimes leads to a weaker immune response.

　　Offit recommends that people at high risk of not suffering from serious diseases wait until a vaccine for a specific variant strain is available before vaccinating the booster vaccine.

　　Two former U.S. FDA officials, Philip Krause and Marion Gruber, also stated in a column in the Washington Post on Monday that they should be targeted for serious illnesses. Of high-risk groups receive booster vaccination.

They believe that for most healthy adults, the first two doses of mRNA vaccine can still provide protection.

　　Yale University immunologist Ellen Foxman (Ellen Foxman) said that even if boosting with the original vaccine would reduce the effectiveness of future vaccination, it would be "unwise" to wait for a specific variant vaccine to be boosted.

　　Dr. Peter Hotez, Dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, USA, and co-director of the Texas Children's Hospital Vaccine Development Center, also believes that booster vaccines can increase related antibodies by 30 to 40 times, which is enough to combat new variants. .

　　Zhong Nanshan, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also stated at a vaccine summit on the weekend that the existing vaccines are effective in preventing severe COVID-19, and "Omi Keron is not terrible."

He also said that the normalization of the epidemic requires two major prerequisites. One is that the case fatality rate should be reduced to approximately 0.1%, which is the flu level, but the current COVID-19 case fatality rate is still around 1%; the other is that the replication index R0 needs to be reduced to about 1%. Between 1-1.5.

　　Author: Qian Tongxin