Don’t freak out over omicron, says Biontech co-founder

‘Don’t freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot’

THE scientist behind the Pfizer vaccine has said he is optimistic the jab will remain protective against severe disease as the omicron variant spreads.

Dr Ugur Sahin, a co-founder of Biontech, said that while the new variant might evade human antibodies, the virus would probably remain vulnerable to attack by T-cells and other parts of the immune system.

“Our message is: Don’t freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot,” Dr Sahin said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Boris Johnson echoed Dr Sahin’s view at a No 10 news conference yesterday, saying there were good grounds for believing booster vaccinations will give “considerable protection” against the omicron variant of Covid.

Laboratories across the world are racing to create clones of omicron in order to understand the extent to which it might evade existing Covid-19 vaccines and treatments,” he said.

“What we’re looking for is the first real reassurance that we need that the vaccines are efficacious against this variant,” Mr Johnson said. “Even if the efficacy… is reduced it’s still very important to know whether they’re effective or not. And, in particular, we need to know quite how effective the boosters are.

“We think there are good grounds for believing that the boosters will give you, under all circumstances, the protection that you need. Considerable protection.”

The Prime Minister’s encouragement chimed with the opinion of many experts but stood in contrast to the view imparted by Stéphane Bancel, the chief executive of vaccine maker Moderna.

Mr Bancel predicted there would be a “material drop” in the effectiveness of existing shots because of the high number of mutations in the spike protein of omicron. Hours later it was announced that early laboratory testing indicated omicron may hamper the ability of Regeneron’s monoclonal antibody drug to treat Covid-19.

“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level,” Mr Bancel told the Financial Times.

“I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to … are like, ‘This is not going to be good’.”

Prof Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said laboratory tests would provide a good indication of how existing vaccines held up against antibodies. But “real-world” data on hospital numbers would be needed to judge omicron’s impact on severe disease.

Tests were likely to show some reduction in effectiveness and if this was at the levels seen with previous variants scientists would be “reassured”. Larger falls in effectiveness in lab tests would cause “worry but not panic”, as it would still be likely the vaccines protected against severe disease, he said.