With COVID-19 boosters jabs for fully vaccinated residential aged care residents and staff taking place daily across the nation, the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pfizer have some reassuring news about the new variant Omicron.
“The preliminary data doesn’t indicate that this is more severe. In fact, if anything, the direction is towards less severity,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said, insisting though that more research was needed.
Dr Ryan said he was confident that the COVID-19 vaccines – AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer in Australia – should still protect people from severe illness if they contract the Omicron variant.
“We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation, and there’s no reason to expect that it wouldn’t be so for Omicron,” added Dr Ryan.
“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is maximised with a third dose of our vaccine,” Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement.
Booster shot appears to ‘neutralise’ Omicron in studies
Pfizer added that a booster dose of its COVID-19 vaccine was able to neutralise the new Omicron variant in laboratory studies.
“Ensuring as many people as possible are fully vaccinated with the first two dose series and a booster remains the best course of action to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” Bourla said.
Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, said an Omicron-specific version of their coronavirus vaccine is being developed and will be available by March.
There were 34 cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 detected in NSW, as of yesterday, with no cases admitted to hospital. Victoria recorded its first confirmed case of Omicron, with four other suspected cases in the community under investigation.
As the graph to the right shows, the decision to impose mandatory vaccinations for aged care workers has proven effective, with the number of older Australians contracting the COVID-19 virus the lowest age group, in the nation.
Getting a booster shot is the best way to ensure that you continue to protect yourself and your older loved ones – we’ve booked ours.
