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Omicron: good signs that Sinopharm and Sinovac shots fend off severe illness, WHO expert says
- Antibodies from the vaccines decline but T-cells still appear to go into action, health body’s incident manager says
- A decoupling in cases and deaths is under way, Abdi Mahamud says
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China’s widely used Sinopharm and Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines will give some protection against severe illness, hospitalisation and death from the Omicron variant despite declines in protective antibodies, a WHO official said on Tuesday.
The assessment from World Health Organization incident manager Abdi Mahamud came just days after several preliminary laboratory studies indicated that three doses of Sinovac did not produce enough antibodies to prevent infection from the new variant.
In one study, researchers from Yale University, the Dominican Republic’s health ministry and other institutions concluded that two doses of Sinovac with one shot of Pfizer was not enough to stop an Omicron infection.
Mahamud said on Tuesday that although Omicron could evade antibodies and cause infection, evidence was emerging that the Covid-19 vaccines still protected against severe illness, hospitalisation and death.
“The vaccines have different rankings in terms of prevention of infections, but what we know well so far is that all of them prevent death … Our prediction is their ability to prevent severe [illness], hospitalisation and death will be maintained,” he said.
“What we have seen from right now is what is going to protect against severe [illness], hospitalisation and death is your T-cell response. The neutralisation antibodies go down and it’s the T-cells. And what we know from other vaccines is they do prevent it, whether it’s the Sinovac or Sinopharm [vaccine].”
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