Are the new COVID boosters really better? Here's what early research says

[AndrewX]

I just had the Pfizer bivalent yesterday, I hope they have better studies.

The new bivalent COVID-19 vaccines may not be more effective than the old shots at neutralizing Omicron, two new studies suggest.

The much talked-up new bivalent COVID-19 vaccine boosters may not be all that superior to the old shots at neutralizing Omicron, two new studies suggest.

Both studies are small, together involving just 73 people in total who were followed for about a month. Both are pre-prints that haven’t yet been peer-reviewed. However, their authors say their findings hint at a phenomenon known as “immunological imprinting” — the immune system’s habit of locking onto, and responding to, the first version of the virus it encountered, either by vaccination or infection.

The first study comes from Columbia University and University of Michigan researchers who compared Pfizer’s and Moderna’s bivalent boosters that target both the original ancestral SARS-CoV-2 strain, as well as Omicron’s BA.4/BA.5 subvariants, against their original vaccine formulations.

After three to five weeks, post booster shot, there were no “discernibly superior” differences between the level of virus-neutralizing antibodies in the blood of people who received the revamped vaccine as their fourth shot, compared with those who received a boost with the original vaccine.
“To disappointment, the bivalent vaccine did not show superiority over the original vaccine,” co-author David D. Ho, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia, told NPR.

A team from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston came up with similar findings. That group looked at the responses in 15 people who received the original mRNA boosters and 18 who received the tweaked, bivalent boosters. People had had two to four prior COVID-19 vaccine doses, and a third of participants had a confirmed COVID infection during the Omicron surge.
Both boosters increased antibody responses, but with only a “modest and non-significant trend” favouring the bivalent shot.

“Our findings suggest that immune imprinting by prior antigenic exposure may pose a greater challenge” than currently appreciated, the authors wrote.

A spokesperson for Pfizer Canada said the company doesn’t typically comment on pre-print studies that they weren’t involved in. Pfizer recently shared, via press release, data that found people who received its bivalent shot showed a “substantial increase” in neutralizing antibodies against Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 in the first seven days, post booster dose.

Pfizer told National Post Thursday that it will have additional data in coming weeks.

Are the new COVID boosters really better? Here's what early research says

The new bivalent COVID-19 vaccines may not be better than the old shots at neutralizing Omicron, two new studies suggest. Learn more

nationalpost.com

 

[lomotil]

So far Covid-19 is doing what it is predicted to do become increasingly more contagious and less virulent with each mutation.
As the virus strains become more contagious, the new vaccines will likely have less initial efficacy and increasingly faster rates of time before they reach ineffectiveness.

The hospital personnel situation in Ontario currently has significantly less staff than before the pandemic and cannot sustain another 2020 type ER influx .

 

[shack]

The hospital personnel situation in Ontario currently has significantly less staff than before the pandemic and cannot sustain another 2020 type ER influx .

Clearly that's not going to happen, otherwise Dougie would have taken measures to ensure that there would be enough staff.

The rightie politicians will spare no expense to make sure that the safety/welfare of the populace is priority number 1.

 

[AndrewX]

Pfizer says new booster shot increases omicron-fighting antibodies


Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, announced Friday that their updated coronavirus booster shot targeting the omicron variant succeeded in strengthening the body’s army of disease-fighting antibodies, even as questions persist about the vaccine’s continued effectiveness against a swarm of later-generation versions of omicron.

The findings reinforce the public health message that the new bivalent boosters, which were rebooted in September to match newer omicron subvariants, could help protect people this fall and winter.

“Based on all the data we now have in hand, we have confidence in the bivalent covid-19 vaccines and their ability to create better protection against covid-19, including these currently circulating variants, than the original vaccine would have,” Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said. He urged the public to consider getting the updated booster ahead of Thanksgiving.

Pfizer presented the data in a news release, and it has not been peer reviewed or published.
The news release does not directly address a concern raised by small studies over the last week that immune-evading variants that have recently emerged and are quickly taking over appear to be far better at eluding the virus-fighting antibodies generated by the booster.
One of the most threatening new variants gaining ground in the United States, BQ.1.1, is related to BA.5, a component of the new booster, so Marks said he was hopeful the bivalent vaccine would hold up, particularly against severe illness and hospitalization.
What you need to know about covid boosters and the latest research

The new data also adds to, but does not resolve, an ongoing scientific debate about the extent to which the new boosters are better than the old boosters. This remains a critical issue for scientists to sort out as they design a long-term vaccine strategy against the virus. But this technical debate is largely separate from the public health issue of whether to get a booster. The old boosters have been replaced by the bivalent shots, with the exception of the Novavax vaccine, and the Pfizer data shows the new shots provide a meaningful boost to antibodies, a key line of immune defense.


The new vaccine strengthened BA.4/BA.5-blocking antibody levels over pre-booster levels in adults of all ages — a 9.5-fold increase in adults younger than 55, and a 13.2-fold increase in older adults.
Some scientists have argued that a 10-fold increase from baseline would probably be clinically meaningful, and the Pfizer vaccine triggered a change of that magnitude in adults.
In adults older than 55, the new booster provoked a stronger immune response against BA.4 and BA.5 than the original booster, although it was unclear whether the difference, measured in laboratory tests, would provide a meaningful difference in how well people were protected.

It was unclear if the new shot also provoked a stronger response than the old booster in younger adult, because there was no comparison group of younger adults that received the original shot.

A month after vaccination, the new booster triggered a fourfold increase in omicron-blocking antibody levels against the BA.4/BA.5 version of omicron compared with the old booster in older adults. That is an advantage, but scientists have varying opinions on whether it will make a difference in whether people are likely to fall ill or how long they are protected.
Marks said a fourfold increase in antibodies over the original vaccine may protect people better against symptomatic infection and increase the durability of protection because antibodies — which decay over time — would be receding from a higher initial level. Other scientists have questioned whether that fourfold difference is big enough to provide a major benefit in terms of hospitalizations avoided and lives saved compared with the old booster.


The debate is a moot point for this winter. The bivalent boosters clearly strengthen immunity and are a critical tool going into a possible winter surge. But they have also raised questions about how to design the best vaccine strategy going forward for a population that has a varied history of infection and vaccination.

“There needs now to be a serious rethink about national covid vaccine policy. Chasing variants with booster redesigns clearly isn’t a sustainable solution,” said John P. Moore, a professor of microbiology and immunology at Weill Cornell Medicine who has been critical of the formulation chosen for the omicron-specific booster.
Adoption of the updated boosters has been disappointing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 10 percent of people 18 and older have received a new booster. Low booster coverage is especially worrisome among adults 65 and older, who are at increased risk of coronavirus complications because of age. About 23 percent of people in that age group have received the new boosters.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/11/04/pfizer-omicron-booster-shot/