Pfizer says coronavirus vaccine booster dose provides immunity against Amicron

Pfizer announced on Wednesday, December 8, that a booster dose of the company's coronavirus vaccine may provide sufficient immunity against the new Amicron variant, even though the immunity provided by the first two doses of the vaccine appears to be significantly lower.

According to the Associated Press, pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its partner, biotechnology company BioNTech, announced that although the first two doses of their vaccine may not have provided sufficient immunity against the Amicron strain, their tests in a laboratory environment show that injecting a booster dose increased the level of antibodies fighting the Amicron strain in a person by 25%.

Blood samples taken from people a month after the booster dose showed that the levels of neutralizing antibodies against the Amicron strain were similar to the levels that the two initial vaccine doses produced against previous strains of the virus.

Scientists still don't know how dangerous the Amicron strain could be. The "highly contagious" Delta strain is currently responsible for most COVID-19 cases and deaths in the United States and other countries.

But the Amicron strain, first identified in South Africa late last month, has an unusually high number of mutations, and scientists are trying to figure out how easily and quickly it spreads, whether the disease it causes is milder or more severe than previous strains, and to what extent it can resist previous vaccines and evade antibodies.

Pfizer's new findings, announced in a press release, are preliminary and have not yet been scientifically reviewed. But Pfizer and BioNTech are the first coronavirus vaccine makers to study the booster dose, which health officials are encouraging people to get, to see if it makes a big difference in building immunity.

Scientists speculate that the large surge in antibodies resulting from the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine may reverse the decline in effectiveness of previous doses.

Pfizer and BioNTech are currently working on developing a specific vaccine to combat the Amicron strain – if needed.

Source: Voice of America