Arushi Bidhuri
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Written By: Arushi Bidhuri | Updated : December 23, 2021 12:04 PM IST
Covid-19 cases are surging upward in the world, and some experts believe that the fast-spreading Omicron may increase the number of infections to their highest level. While anyone could be at risk, scientists have recently found that those who are unvaccinated but were infected with the Delta variant of the coronavirus are more susceptible to Omicron infection.
Researchers at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria found that persons who have never been vaccinated but have been infected with the Delta Covid variant may have limited protection against the new vaccine-evading Omicron.
While it's well known that Covid infections produce natural antibodies, a new study suggests that those who haven't been vaccinated but have been infected with the Delta Covid variant may have limited protection against the new vaccine-evading Omicron.
According to the Daily Mail, researchers from the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria compared the blood of individuals who had beaten Delta to that of those who had beaten Omicron to determine antibody levels. Only one sample out of seven was able to neutralise Omicron by producing adequate infection-fighting proteins. Authors of the study said, "this essentially means the antibodies did not recognise Omicron as a threat due to its heavily mutated nature compared to the Delta variant."
Covid survivors who were also fully vaccinated, on the other hand, exhibited an increased ability to battle the strain, implying that past infection alone gives little protection from contracting Omicron, according to the findings. The researchers also tried two doses of the Pfizer injected with Omicron and discovered that it performed better in nine out of twenty samples, producing enough antibodies to fend off the new Covid variant before infection.
According to the findings, just one out of ten doses of the Moderna jab were successful in producing antibodies against Omicron. Overall, the best results were observed in five samples collected from persons who had survived a previous Covid infection and then received a vaccine, a group termed the 'super-immune' by the researchers. Professor Lawrence Young, a microbiologist at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom, was reported as noting that despite the study's modest sample size, it added to research indicating Omicron's ability to evade immunity. He said it was "hazardous" to draw any conclusions from the study, but that it did emphasise the significance of obtaining a booster shot.
(with inputs from agencies)
