Thirteen of Omicron’s mutations should have hurt the variant’s chances of survival. Instead, they worked together to make it thrive.
Tag Archives: antibodies
How Does Getting a Breakthrough Covid Case Affect My Immunity?
As Omicron cases skyrocket, more vaccinated people may get “hybrid” immunity after a breakthrough infection. But experts still encourage precautions.
Immune system vs. virus: Why omicron had experts worried from the start
Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies responding to an infection of SARS-CoV-2. (credit: Getty Images/Kateryna Kon/Science Photo Library)
Right from omicron’s first description, researchers were concerned about the variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Looking over the list of mutations it carried, scientists could identify a number that would likely make the variant more infectious. Other mutations were even more worrying, as they would likely interfere with the immune system’s ability to recognize the virus, allowing it to pose a risk to those who had been vaccinated or suffered from previous infections.
Buried in the subtext of these worries was a clear implication: Scientists could simply look at the sequence of amino acids in the spike protein of a coronavirus and get a sense of how well the immune system would respond to it.
That knowledge is based on years of studying how the immune system operates, combined with a lot of specific information regarding its interactions with SARS-CoV-2. What follows is a description of these interactions, along with their implications for viral evolution and present and future variants.
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Covid Treatments Including Paxlovid Are Rationed as Cases Spike
Scarce supplies and surging Covid cases have caused health officials, hospitals, doctors and patients to scramble for pills and infusions.
More People Are Getting Unapproved Fourth Doses of the Covid-19 Vaccine
People with compromised immune systems are getting unapproved fourth or fifth Covid-19 shots, despite uncertainty about their safety or effectiveness.
Omicron Variant May Help Beat Delta, Study Suggests
In the lab, antibodies produced during an Omicron infection protected against Delta. If Omicron dominates in the real world, that could lead to a less dire future.
Hospitals Scramble as Antibody Treatments Fail Against Omicron
The single remaining monoclonal antibody therapy effective against the variant is now in short supply in the U.S., imperiling an option that doctors and hospitals have relied on.
Moderna Says Its Booster Significantly Raises Antibodies Against Omicron
A 50-microgram dose increased antibodies by roughly 37-fold, and a full dose of 100 micrograms was even more powerful, the company said.
Vaccines Prevent Severe Disease From Omicron, New Studies Say
In the lab, immune cells put up a strong fight against Omicron, suggesting that vaccines will be able to prevent the worst outcomes of the virus variant.
Pfizer Says Its Booster Is Effective Against Omicron
The company’s finding is based on only a small study of blood samples in a laboratory, but others are sure to follow.
Pfizer says blood samples from people who got three of its doses show robust antibody levels against Omicron.
Early omicron data finds vaccine protection stumbles—but recovers with boosters
Enlarge / Pedestrians walk in front of a COVID-19 vaccination site in Brooklyn, New York, on Nov. 19, 2021. (credit: Xinhua News Agency)
The first batch of preliminary laboratory data on the omicron coronavirus variant has come out, and the results are largely what health experts have anticipated: protective antibodies from two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine are considerably less effective at thwarting the new variant than older versions of the virus. However, antibody potency appears to rebound to fight omicron after a booster dose.
The results suggest that people who have only two doses of the mRNA vaccine may not be protected from infection but would likely remain protected from severe disease. The findings also suggest that maintaining high levels of protection against omicron will require a booster dose of the current vaccines—or even an omicron-specific shot in the future.
The top-line findings and conclusions come from three separate sets of laboratory experiments—all of which are extremely preliminary, involve small sample numbers, and have not been peer-reviewed or published in scientific journals.
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Most Covid Vaccines Will Work as Boosters, Study Suggests
In a comparison of seven different brands, researchers found that most shots give a strong boost, even in mix-and-match combinations.
Merck’s Covid Treatment Pill Wins Blessing of F.D.A. Panel
The treatment, known as molnupiravir, could be authorized in the United States within days, and available within weeks, if the F.D.A. follows the committee’s recommendation.
What We Know About the New Covid Variant, Omicron
Intense research into the new coronavirus variant first identified in southern Africa, has just begun. World leaders have urged people not to panic — and to get vaccinated, if they can.
Antiviral Covid-19 Pills Are Coming. Will There Be Enough Tests?
The pills must be given early in the course of infection, which means access to timely, accurate test results will be crucial.
New ‘Omicron’ Variant Stokes Concern but Vaccines May Still Work
The Omicron variant carries worrisome mutations that may let it evade antibodies, scientists said. But it will take more research to know how it fares against vaccinated people.
Has the Virus Infected Huge Numbers of Younger Children?
Federal scientists estimated that more than 40 percent of children aged 5 to 11 had been infected with the coronavirus by June. Outside experts aren’t so sure.
Should Pregnant Women Get a Covid-19 Booster Shot?
Experts strongly agree that the shots benefit the mother as well as the fetus.
Mix-and-Match Covid Boosters: Why They Just Might Work
The F.D.A. may authorize booster shots of vaccines different from the ones that Americans originally received. The science behind the move is promising.
What Scientists Know About the Risk of Breakthrough Covid Deaths
Deaths among people who have been fully vaccinated remain rare, but older adults and those with compromised immune systems are at much higher risk.
Mix-and-match COVID boosters are as good—if not better than—all the same shots
Enlarge / A vial of the current Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. (credit: Getty | Ivan Romano)
Mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines for booster doses appears safe and as effective—if not more effective—than sticking with the same vaccine for a booster dose. That’s according to preliminary data posted online Wednesday from a clinical trial run by the National Institutes of Health.
The trial bolsters what some have long hoped: that mixing and matching vaccines could provide stronger, broader protection against the pandemic virus and all its variants.
The trial was not large enough to definitively indicate which combination of vaccines offers the best protection. And the early results, available on a preprint server, have not yet been peer-reviewed. But the preliminary trial findings do hint that Moderna’s mRNA vaccine may offer the strongest protection all around—backing up similar findings from earlier vaccine-effectiveness studies. The data also suggests that people who received the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine may want to get a boost with one of the two mRNA vaccines, either Moderna’s or Pfizer/BioNTech’s.
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What the Future May Hold for the Coronavirus and Us
Viral evolution is a long game. Here’s where scientists think we could be headed.
If You’ve Had Covid, Do You Need the Vaccine?
So-called natural immunity varies from patient to patient, scientists say. Immunization is still the best choice after recovering from the disease.
No, your antibodies are not better than vaccination: An explainer
Enlarge / Dr. Silvia Gelvez gestures after receiving a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against COVID-19, at Colombia University Clinic in Bogota on February 18, 2021. (credit: Getty | RAUL ARBOLEDA )
As long as there have been vaccines against COVID-19, there have been arguments for why people shouldn’t get those vaccines. One of the more persistent—and hairier—arguments is that people who have already been infected with the pandemic coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, don’t need a vaccine. An infection will generate immune responses similar to those generated by vaccines, the thinking goes. So, why waste coveted vaccine doses on people who already have immune responses against the virus—which may also needlessly put those people at risk of vaccine side effects, however rare?
It’s a reasonable question, and there is legitimate scientific debate about it. There are also different approaches to the issue in terms of public health policy. In Israel, for example, people who have recovered from COVID-19 after testing positive on a PCR test can get a vaccination “Green Pass” that’s valid for up to six months. The pass allows them entry into various places just as it does for people who are fully vaccinated. In the European Union, some member states offer a similar “Digital COVID Certificate” to people who have recovered from COVID-19 and received just one dose of a two-dose mRNA vaccine regimen.
In the US, however, public health officials are unequivocal in their approach: people are categorized as either vaccinated or unvaccinated, regardless of prior infection. It’s an approach with many strengths, including robust scientific data supporting vaccination for people who have recovered. That data—which we’ll get into below—has consistently shown that immune responses from natural infections are extremely variable, thus unreliable. Vaccines, on the other hand, have repeatedly proven to generate highly protective immune responses.
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They Shunned Covid Vaccines but Embraced Antibody Treatment
Championed by doctors and conservative radio hosts alike, monoclonal antibodies for Covid are in high demand — even from those who don’t want a vaccine.
Some Rich People Are Counting Their Antibodies ‘Like Calories’
Medical concierge services are offering coronavirus antibody tests as a perk, despite caveats about their usefulness.
Study of Covid Booster Shot Benefits Fans Debate Over Extra Doses
Independent experts, including government scientists, were skeptical of the research from Israel, which included limited data over a short period.
RNA vaccines seem to produce very different antibody levels
Enlarge / A phlebotomist draws blood meant for antibody testing. (credit: Frederic J. Brown / Getty Images)
We’ve tended to treat the RNA-based vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech as functionally equivalent. They take an identical approach to producing immunity and have a very similar set of ingredients. Clinical trial data suggested they had very similar efficacy—both in the area of 95 percent.
So it was a bit of a surprise to have a paper released yesterday indicating that the two produce an antibody response that’s easy to distinguish, with Moderna inducing antibody levels that were more than double that seen among people who received the Pfizer/BioNTech shot. While it’s important not to infer too much from a single study, this one was large enough that the results are likely to be reliable. If so, the results serve as a caution that we might not want to base too many of our expectations on relatively crude measures of antibody levels.
The new study
The work itself was remarkably simple. A Belgian medical center was vaccinating its staff and asked for volunteers willing to give blood samples. Samples were taken both prior to vaccination and six to 10 weeks after, with the levels of antibody specific to the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein tested at both points. About 700 participants received the Moderna vaccine, while roughly 950 took the one from Pfizer/BioNTech.
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Crowded Events. No Masks. Then a Covid Diagnosis for Gov. Abbott of Texas
The announcement that Gov. Greg Abbott had tested positive for the coronavirus came amid a pitched battle over public health measures in schools and a new surge in hospitalizations.
Breakthrough Infections and the Delta Variant: What to Know
Scientific understanding of the coronavirus variant is changing quickly. Here’s a recap of the most important findings.
Pandemic of unvaccinated rages with delta’s spread; cases up in all 50 states
Enlarge / Anthony Church says goodbye through glass windows to his daughter, who is recovering from COVID-19 at Johnston Memorial Hospital’s ICU on June 16, 2021, in Abingdon, Va. (credit: Getty | The Washington Post)
With the rapid rise of the highly transmissible delta variant and national vaccination efforts largely stalled, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage among the unvaccinated in the US—and things are looking grim.
Cases of COVID-19 are rising in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Right now, the states with the highest averages for daily new cases per 100,000 people are Arkansas, Missouri, Florida, Louisiana, and Nevada, which all have below-average vaccination rates. Nationwide, average daily cases are up 140 percent over the past two weeks. Hospitalizations and deaths, which lag behind increases in cases by weeks, are also up 34 percent and 33 percent, respectively.
Relative to the rest of the pandemic, the nationwide numbers of cases, hospitalizations, and deaths are low—they’re matching or are below numbers seen back in April of 2020. But rates of cases among the unvaccinated in some places rival those seen at the heights of the pandemic. And areas with low vaccination coverage are seeing surges.
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Should People With Immune Problems Get Third Vaccine Doses?
France is handing out third shots of the two-dose vaccines to cancer patients and others with immune system impairments. In the United States, patients like these are on their own.
Three Studies, One Result: Vaccines Point the Way Out of the Pandemic
New scientific research underscores the effectiveness of vaccines and their versatility in the fight against the coronavirus.
Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines Likely to Produce Lasting Immunity, Study Finds
Immune cells are still organizing to fight the coronavirus months after inoculation, scientists reported.
Wondering if the Covid Vaccine Worked? Get the Right Test, at the Right Time
Scientists generally recommend against antibody testing after vaccination. But for some people, it makes sense.
Scientists Report Earliest Known Coronavirus Cases in Five US States
Blood drawn from nine people in the earliest days of the pandemic tested positive for the infection. But some experts questioned the results.
Scientists Report Earliest Known Coronavirus Infections in Five U.S. States
Blood drawn from nine people in the earliest days of the pandemic tested positive for the infection. But some experts questioned the results.
Immunity to the Coronavirus May Persist for Years, Scientists Find
Important immune cells survive in the bone marrow of people who were infected with the virus or were inoculated against it, new research suggests.
Researchers show neutralizing antibodies correlate with COVID protection
Enlarge / Illustration of antibodies (red and blue) responding to an infection with the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 (purple). (credit: Getty Images)
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of researchers’ nagging questions involved trying to understand what constitutes immunity to future infections. People who had been infected by the virus produced varying amounts of antibodies, and it wasn’t clear what levels were needed to provide protection. Similar issues applied to figuring out how long protection lasted, given that antibody levels appeared to decline over time. Those questions have implications for whether we will eventually need booster shots to maintain our immunity.
The most common way of looking at immunity at the beginning of the pandemic was to check for neutralizing antibodies, which could block the virus’s ability to infect new cells. But we’ve gone through much of the pandemic without knowing exactly how levels of these antibodies relate to protection.
Evidence has been building that neutralizing antibodies directly correlate with protection, and a new paper provides some of the most decisive evidence yet. The authors also provide some hints about the sort of decline in immunity we might expect.
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Covid Vaccines Protect Pregnant Women, Study Confirms
The shots may also have benefits for infants and do not seem to damage the placenta, according to the latest research.
Vaccines Are Effective Against the New York Variant, Studies Find
The research adds to a growing number of findings suggesting the Pfizer and Moderna shots are protective against the variants identified so far.
The Covid-19 Plasma Boom Is Over. What Did We Learn From It?
The U.S. government invested $800 million in plasma when the country was desperate for Covid-19 treatments. A year later, the program has fizzled.
Vaccines Won’t Protect Millions of Patients With Weakened Immune Systems
Many cannot produce enough infection-fighting cells to fend off the coronavirus. But researchers are testing one therapy that may help: monoclonal antibodies.
Vaccines Won’t Protect Millions of Patients With Crippled Immune Systems
Many cannot produce enough infection-fighting cells to fend off the coronavirus. But researchers are testing one therapy that may help: monoclonal antibodies.
Blood Clots Linked to AZ Vaccine Stem From Rare Antibody Reaction
New studies from Germany and Norway examined cases involving mostly younger people who developed serious and sometimes fatal blood disorders.
Vaccinated Mothers Are Trying to Give Babies Antibodies via Breast Milk
Multiple studies show that there are antibodies in a vaccinated mother’s milk. This has led some women to try to restart breastfeeding and others to share milk with friends’ children.
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Covid-19 Vaccine
A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.
Researchers Are Hatching a Low-Cost Coronavirus Vaccine
A new formulation entering clinical trials in Brazil, Mexico, Thailand and Vietnam could change how the world fights the pandemic.
My Covid-19 Patients Can’t Get the Treatment They Need
Doctors like me want monoclonal antibodies for our high-risk patients, but the medicine is hard to come by.