According to some researchers, Omicron seems less effective in triggering an immune response, while contaminations are on the rise again in France.
Less virulent than the previous variants, the virus responsible for Covid-19, Omicron, seems less effective in triggering an immune response. Not only against previous variants, but also against itself.
immunity a priori generated by Omicron is now questioned by some researchers. This is particularly the case of Eric Topol, a researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in the United States, who argues in a post shared on Twitter on March 18, 2022 that “Omicron’s infectious breakthroughs induce a weak neutralizing antibody response “, suggesting “reduced protection against infection” or that of a future variant of Covid-19.
China, which claimed the “zero Covid” strategy, is today overtaken by the variant Omicron, particularly contagious. Some 30 million Chinese are currently confined and this would be the worst epidemic resurgence since the first wave of 2020.
A study carried out in Toulouse
Furthermore, the Toulouse University Hospital virology laboratory studied, in Covid-19 positive people, what their antibody level was before the infection. In particular, the researchers compared the levels between an infection due to the Omicron variant and an infection due to the Delta variant. Unsurprisingly, the level of antibodies must be much higher to be protected against Omicron.
Overshadowed by the war in Ukraine, the Covid-19 pandemic is generating increasing cases in Europe. However, it is difficult to predict the extent and especially the severity of a new wave.