Omicron infection probably does not protect against other corona variants: Explosive study from Austria published

Created: 04/08/2022, 12:08 p.m

By: Juliane Gutmann

Many are currently infected with the Omicron variant.

Can you get Covid-19 again afterwards?

New study results show the need for vaccination.

Around half of the European population will be infected with Corona within the next few months.

The World Health Organization (WHO) issued this prophecy in February 2022.

And she was right: Currently, an extremely large number of people are infected with the corona variant Omikron.

Are you one of those who have already done Omikron?

Then you don't need to fear any further corona infections - right?

Information is currently circulating that people are infected again with Covid-19 shortly after surviving the omicron.

It should also lead to severe courses.

In a new study, Austrian researchers have now examined how good the corona protection is after an omicron infection.

The essence of their analysis:

.

Corona vaccination survey

Vaccination protects against severe corona courses - even after surviving the omicron infection.

(Archive image) © Marta Fernández Jara/dpa

Omicron survived - are you now also protected against other corona variants?

In their analysis, the researchers led by Annika Rössler from the Medical University in Innsbruck were able to prove that the omicron variant (BA.1) of Sars-CoV-2 can undermine both the vaccination protection and the immunity acquired through other corona variants.

As the specialist portal

further informs, BA.1 has proven to be a so-called "immune escape" variant, as evidenced by breakthrough infections in vaccinated and recovered people.

In their publication, they compared serum samples, including antibody titers, from the following groups of people (all had

):

• Vaccinated without previous corona infection (except Omicron): 15 people

• Unvaccinated without previous corona infection (except Omicron): 18 people

• Vaccinated with a history of omicron and other Sars-CoV-2 infections: 11 people

• Unvaccinated people with a previous omicron and other Sars-CoV-2 infection: 15 people

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“We found that neutralizing antibody titers against all variants in vaccinated subjects following breakthrough infection with Omicron BA.1 and in vaccinated or unvaccinated subjects infected with wild-type, alpha or delta prior to infection with the Omicron variant variant were high," the researchers inform.

Their study goes on to say: “Serum samples obtained from unvaccinated individuals after infection with the alpha, beta or delta variant of the coronavirus (...) have shown that they only occasionally neutralize the omicron variant “.

Ergo:

.

Unvaccinated study participants who survived omicron but had not previously had contact with other corona variants

.

However, according to the researchers, these do not provide sufficient protection against other corona variants such as Delta.

"Despite certain limitations of this study, including the small sample size (...), our data support the hypothesis that the omicron BA.1 variant is an extremely potent immune system variant, showing only low cross-reactivity with the earlier variants.

;

Vaccination makes sense for complete protection,” the researchers conclude.