Data from Great Britain
Boosters with Biontech and Moderna work so well against Omikron
A syringe with a Biontech / Pfizer vaccine
© Peerapon Boonyakiat / Picture Alliance
The current vaccines weaken somewhat against Omikron – a booster vaccination increases the protection. Data from Great Britain show how effective the boosters with Moderna or Biontech are.
More than 31 million people in Germany have already received a booster vaccination against the coronavirus. This corresponds to a rate of 37.3 percent. The booster campaign and contact restrictions are currently the most important measures to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious Omikron variant. In many countries, the variant is already causing a sharp increase in the number of infections. In Germany, too, experts expect a comparable development soon. According to this, Omikron could replace Delta as the dominant variant as early as January.
Omikron bypasses immune protection better than previous variants, which is why vaccine manufacturers are already working on vaccines specially tailored to this mutant. But even a booster with the current vaccines increases the protection against Omikron – how much, among other things, shows data from Great Britain, recently published by the local health authority.
Moderna booster particularly effective
The analysis included data from around 148,000 Delta infected people and around 68,000 people who were infected with Omikron. The researchers looked at the booster vaccine used and the time interval to the last vaccination and calculated how effective the vaccines were against both variants. Among other things, the researchers found indications that the effect of the corona vaccines from Biontech / Pfizer and Astrazeneca against the Omikron variant is weaker than against Delta, but that a booster vaccination increases the protection against symptomatic infection again.
- In those vaccinated who first received two doses of Astrazeneca, the Omikron infection protection increased to 60 percent with a Biontech / Pfizer or Moderna booster (period: two to four weeks after the third vaccination). In the course of the following weeks the protection decreased somewhat and after ten weeks it was 35 percent (Biontech / Pfizer-Booster) or 45 percent (Moderna-Booster).
- In vaccinated people who had initially received two doses of Biontech / Pfizer, the Omikron infection protection increased to 70 percent with a Biontech booster. For the period from ten weeks after the third vaccination, the effect against Omikron is given as 45 percent. The effect was somewhat stronger with a Moderna booster: According to the data, the effectiveness here was 70 to 75 percent (period: five to nine weeks after the booster).
- For people who initially received two doses of Moderna, the numbers were too small to estimate the effectiveness of the booster vaccinations, the report says.
Protection against serious illnesses is probably higher
The researchers point out that the data are preliminary and may contain certain biases, among other things due to the small number of cases examined. It is unclear how long the improved protection will last after the booster vaccination. The data also do not allow statements about protection against serious illness. Based on experience with previous variants, however, the researchers assume that the protection against severe disease is significantly higher than that against symptomatic diseases. According to the researchers, the first data on protection against hospital admissions could be available in a few weeks.
The data largely coincide with estimates by Federal Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD), according to which the effectiveness of the third vaccination against Omikron is about 70 to 80 percent. The booster protects “not perfectly,” wrote Lauterbach recently on Twitter. But without a booster, the protection is “too weak”.
Adapted vaccines against Omikron are expected after the end of the current winter wave at the earliest. Experts therefore advise not to wait for updated vaccines, but to get vaccinated or boosted with the vaccines currently available.