Catching omicron might act as ‘natural vaccine’ for those refusing jabs, says scientist

CATCHING the omicron variant could act as a “natural vaccine” among people who are not inoculated against coronavirus, a disease expert has suggested.

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, said no one could expect to avoid contact with the virus over the next few weeks as the variant was spreading so quickly.

Omicron is highly likely to be the dominant Covid variant by Christmas based on current trends. Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, warned last week that omicron cases could reach one million a day by the end of the month.

“Omicron is spreading so quickly that unless you’re living the life of a hermit, you’re very likely to come across it in the next couple of weeks. I don’t think anybody should be going around thinking they’re not going to catch it. I think that situation has changed,” Prof Riley told BBC Radio 4.

“If it is milder, and we know infection induces an immune response, it is possible that this could act as a natural vaccine, getting to those people who have so far been unwilling to be vaccinated.

“But I think we have to exercise a huge degree of caution with that, because there’s a huge ‘if ’ about this ‘is it milder?’.”

On vaccines, Prof Riley insisted that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca jabs were “protecting pretty well against severe Covid, even with omicron” after laboratory data showed two doses were significantly less effective in stopping people from contracting the strain compared with previous variants.

“Even a single dose of the vaccine is going to protect you as an individual,” she said. “That may be the difference between going to hospital and not going to hospital.”