They tested these against in-vitro Omicron samples, as well as four other strains marked 'of concern' by the World Health Organization (such as Delta), and two variants marked as 'of interest'.

The expert team of 11 scientists looked at 28 serum samples from patients recovering from the original strain of SARS-CoV-2. Plus, his team's paper predicts that whilst 'a third-dose enhancement strategy can significantly boost immunity,' the 'protection from Omicron may be compromised.' He says that because the antibody protection - in the form of previous infection or vaccination - decreases gradually over a period of six months, Omicron 'may be able to escape immunity even better.' Wang, who is Former Chairman of the Medical Virology and Vice Chairman of the Medical Microbiology and Immunology of the Chinese Medical Association, does adds caution though. 'However, the average ED50 (protection level) against Omicron is still higher than the baseline, which indicated there is still some protection effect can be observed.' 'We found the large number of mutations of the Omicron variant did cause significant changes of neutralization sensitivity against people who had already had COVID,' Wang says.

Reporting on this very early study, lead author Youchun Wang, Senior Research Fellow from the National Institutes for Food and Drug Control in China, says their results support recent findings in South Africa which highlight Omicron was 'easy to evade immunity.' Published in Emerging Microbes & Infection, the findings also suggest that although a third-dose enhancement strategy can 'significantly boost immunity,' the protection from Omicron 'may be compromised' - but more research is needed to better understand this. However, the test tube (or 'in-vitro', scientifically) samples of Omicron examined in this new research do show it 'exceeds' all other variants in its potential capability to evade the protection gained from previous infection or vaccination.

Stronger