COVID vaccine boosters are proving a useful tool against Omicron, but scientists say that endless boosting might not be a practical or sustainable strategy.
. This more durable immunity “also wanes, but to a lesser extent”, says Balicer, meaning that a third shot might be enough to prevent people getting critically ill.
“Hopefully, this third shot is enough” for most people to prevent severe disease and offer some protection against infection, Balazs adds. Butthat people who are immunized with inactivated-virus vaccines — such as China’s CoronaVac and Sinopharm jabs, which are widely used in middle- and low-income nations — might need two additional doses of an mRNA vaccine to combat Omicron.
The first data on Omicron-specific vaccines are expected within months — although even that might be too late given how quickly the variant spreads. A pan-coronavirus vaccine that covers all strains as well as related viruses would be preferable, but “whether this will be possible isn’t yet clear,” says disease ecologist Marm Kilpatrick at the University of California Santa Cruz. “There is always substantial uncertainty when dealing with viral evolution.
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