Covid Vaccine Study Suggests Not Waiting for Omicron Booster

How much better will an omicron-specific Covid-19 booster be? Research that models the protective effect of variant-modified shots found they’ll probably offer a slight advantage over existing immunizations.

Antibodies that neutralize the virus jump about 11-fold after a booster targeting the original “Wuhan” strain of the coronavirus, and are increased a further 1.5-fold when a variant-modified shot is used, researchers at the University of New South Wales’ Kirby Institute found.

“A variant-modified booster does provide at least a marginal improvement,” said Deborah Cromer, head of the institute’s infection epidemiology and policy analytics group in Sydney, who led the study. ...