Coronavirus: Pfizer, Moderna booster ‘90 per cent effective’ against Omicron
Three new studies reveal effectiveness of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine booster shots against the Omicron Covid variant.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Covid booster shots from Pfizer and Moderna are “90 per cent effective” at preventing hospitalisation from Omicron, according to new studies from the US Centres for Disease Control.
The latest study looked at 88,000 hospitalisation during the Omicron surge in December and January and found the booster was 90 per cent effective compared to two doses, which was 57 per cent effective after six months.
A review of 200,000 admissions to emergency rooms from August to January, meanwhile, found boosters were 82 per cent effective at preventing emergency visits compared to two shots, which were 38 per cent effective after six months.
The third does also increases effectiveness against infection and death among people aged over 50-years-old, the data suggested.
Those over 50 that haven’t received a Covid vaccination, meanwhile, were 45 times more likely to be hospitalised than those that have had a booster dose.
A third study of more than 13,000 Omicron cases in the US, published in the medical journal JAMA, found those with a booster shot were 66 per cent less likely of becoming ill and developing symptomatic infection from Omicron.
COVID PILL AVAILABLE TO 100 NATIONS
Generic drug manufacturers will make a more affordable version of Merck’s anti-Covid pill for 105 of the world’s poorer nations, in deals announced on Thursday local time by a UN-backed organisation.
The global Medicines Patent Pool signed agreements with 27 manufacturers to produce the oral antiviral medicine molnupiravir, for supply in low- and-middle-income countries.
“This is a critical step toward ensuring global access to an urgently needed Covid-19 treatment and we are confident that … the anticipated treatments will be rapidly available in LMICs,” said MPP executive director Charles Gore.
Merck granted a licence to the MPP in an agreement announced in October. The MPP, in turn, issued sub-licences to the generic drugs makers, in agreements announced Thursday.
The sub-licences allow manufacturers to produce the raw ingredients for molnupiravir, and/or the finished drug itself.
The companies involved are spread across Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Jordan, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa, South Korea and Vietnam.
Five manufacturers will focus on producing the raw ingredients; 13 will produce both raw ingredients and molnupiravir itself; while nine will simply produce the finished drug.
REDUCTION IN DEATHS
In December, the US Food and Drug Administration regulator authorised molnupiravir for high-risk adults, a day after giving the go-ahead to a similar but more effective drug made by Pfizer.
Antivirals like molnupiravir and Pfizer’s Paxlovid pill work by decreasing the ability of a virus to replicate, thereby slowing down the disease.
Merck’s pill is taken within five days of symptom onset and was shown in a trial of 1,400 participants to reduce Covid hospitalisations and deaths by 30 per cent among at-risk people.
Pfizer’s pill reduced the same outcomes by almost 90 per cent. Merck, also called MSD outside the United States, jointly developed molnupiravir with the Miami-based company Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
“Accelerating broad, affordable access to molnupiravir has been a priority for MSD from the start,” said MSD’s director for policy and government relations, Paul Schaper.
“We are pleased to see this vision come to life.”
It comes as the world recorded more than three million coronavirus cases per day on average between January 13 and 19, according to official data, with the Omicron variant fuelling new infections.
FRANCE TO LIFT COVID RESTRICTIONS
Meanwhile, French Prime Minister Jean Castex has set out a timetable for a gradual lifting of Covid-19 rules and restrictions in the coming months, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said.
Mr Castex will lay out the calendar along with Health Minister Olivier Veran at a press conference following a cabinet meeting on the health crisis, with France recording an average of nearly 310,000 daily cases over the past week.
On Tuesday, France posted a record 464,769 new cases in a 24-hour period. The highly contagious Omicron variant has sparked a surge in infections but the number of Covid patients in intensive care has been falling since early January to around 3,850 people currently.
“We have seen that incidence rates are still rising, but we also know that the Omicron variant results in fewer serious cases than the Delta variant,” Mr Attal said.
He added that “there are hopes the Omicron wave could peak soon.” The government announced a series of measures in early December to try to contain a fifth wave of cases, and on Sunday parliament approved the creation of a “vaccine pass” for entering restaurants, cinemas, museums and other public venues.
Previously a recent negative Covid test could also be used to obtain the pass for unvaccinated people.
But the government ended the option in a bid to push more people to get the jabs — though 90 per cent of adults are already vaccinated.
“The French are waiting for a clarification of the timetable and the conditions that could lead to an end (of the pass requirement) as soon as the health situation allows,” Mr Attal said.
Nightclubs remain closed and capacity limits have been reimposed for concerts, sporting matches and other events at 2,000 people indoors, and 5,000 outside — with no standing areas allowed.
No eating or drinking is authorised in theatres, sporting venues, cinemas or public transport, and companies have been ordered to have eligible employees work from home at least three days per week, or face huge fines.
Studies have indicated that Omicron is less dangerous than other virus variants, fuelling hope that authorities will be able to ease social distancing and face mask rules for populations desperate for a return to normality.
The British government said Wednesday that most restrictions would be lifted starting next week, including the requirement for a Covid pass proving vaccination to enter public venues, citing data that showed infections had peaked.
But World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus insisted this week that the pandemic was “nowhere near over”, warning that new variants were still likely to emerge.
UK TO END COVID SAFETY MEASURES
Boris Johnson has announced that Covid safety measures including mask wearing and vaccine passports will be scrapped in the UK from next week in what he described as a “light at the end of the tunnel”.
Vaccine passports will be dumped along with the guidance to work from home and requirement to wear face masks indoors and on public transport starting on January 28.
“The Cabinet concluded that because of the extraordinary booster campaign, together with the way the public have responded to the Plan B measures, we can return to Plan A in England, and allow Plan B regulations to expire,” the prime minister said.
The move is seen as an attempt to quell anger over Johnson’s partying on Downing St during a work Christmas party that took place when his own government’s restrictions were in place and included a ban on group gatherings.
Mr Johnson said the success of the booster campaign was key to the decision.
“Many nations across Europe have endured further winter lockdowns … While we must continue to remain cautious, the data are showing that time and again, this government, got the toughest decisions, right,” he said.
He pointed to Covid cases falling as experts grow increasingly confident the country is over the hump of Omicron.
There were 94,432 new cases in the past 24 hours, with 438 fatalities also recorded in the UK.
Deaths have risen compared to the past few days, but are still not near the levels seen during the peak last year.
PILL WORKS AGAINST OMICRON
Pfizer’s new Covid-19 pill, Paxlovid, was effective against the Omicron variant in laboratory tests, giving hope that the drug will help stop the spread of the strain.
Pfizer said on Tuesday the drug’s main component, nirmatrelvir, worked in three separate laboratory studies.
The company issued the results by press release.
“These data suggest that our oral Covid-19 therapy can be an important and effective tool in our continued battle against this devastating virus and current variants of concern, including the highly transmissible Omicron,” said Mikael Dolsten, Pfizer’s chief scientific officer.
It comes amid reports that a fourth vaccine dose is not enough to prevent Omicron infections, according to a study in Israel.
Israel’s Sheba Medical Centre has given second booster shots in a trial among its staff and is studying the effect of the Pfizer booster in 154 people after two weeks and the Moderna booster in 120 people after one week, said Gili Regev-Yochay, director of the Infectious Diseases Unit
These were compared to a control group that did not receive the fourth shot. Those in the Moderna group had previously received three shots of Pfizer’s vaccine, the hospital said.
The vaccines led to an increase in the number of antibodies “even a little bit higher than what we had after the third dose”, said Regev-Yochay.
“Yet, this is probably not enough for the Omicron,” she told reporters. “We know by now that the level of antibodies needed to protect and not to got infected from Omicron is probably too high for the vaccine, even if it’s a good vaccine.”.
The findings, which the hospital said were the first of its kind in the world, were preliminary and not yet published.
HONG KONG ORDERS KILLING OF SMALL ANIMALS
Hong Kong authorities have announced that they will kill about 2,000 small animals, including hamsters, after several tested positive for coronavirus at a pet store where an employee was infected with the Delta strain of the virus.
Officials from the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department of Hong Kong said the sale of hamsters and the import of small mammals will cease.
The pet shop employee tested positive for the Delta variant on Monday, as did several hamsters imported from the Netherlands.
Hong Kong authorities said they are not ruling out transmission between animals and humans.
“We cannot exclude the possibility that the shopkeeper was in fact actually infected from the hamsters,” said Edwin Tsui, a controller at the Centre for Health Protection.
“If you own a hamster, you should keep your hamsters at home, do not take them out,” department director Leung Siu-fai said at a news conference. “All pet owners should observe good personal hygiene, and after you have been in contact with animals and their food, you should wash your hands.”
“Do not kiss your pets,” he added.
Anyone who bought hamsters from the pet store after 7 January will be traced and must hand over their hamsters to authorities to be put down, officials said.
Pet stores in Hong Kong are forbidden to sell hamsters and about 2,000 small mammals, including hamsters and chinchillas, will be put to sleep humanely.
Hong Kong has been struggling with a local omicron outbreak traced to Cathay Pacific crew members who visited local bars and restaurants before testing positive for the omicron variant.
Two former flight attendants have been arrested for leaving their homes during quarantine and later being confirmed to have coronavirus infections.
The government said the two arrived from the U.S. around Christmas time and “conducted unnecessary activities” while under medical surveillance.
The arrests came after Cathay Pacific said it had fired two crew members for breaching coronavirus protocols.
The two have been released on bail and will have their case heard in court on 9 February.
If convicted of violating anti-epidemic regulations, they could face up to six months’ jail and a fine of up to 5,000 Hong Kong dollars ($A893).
CHINA CRACKS DOWN ON INTERNATIONAL MAIL
China’s postal service has ordered workers to disinfect international deliveries and urged the public to reduce overseas orders after claimsmail could be the source of recent coronavirus outbreaks.
The move illustrates China’s unrelenting focus on stamping out all coronavirus cases as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics next month, even as experts say the risk of such surface transmission is low.
Multiple small outbreaks in recent weeks – including in Beijing – have tested China’s strict policy of targeting zero Covid cases, which authorities have pursued even as the rest of the world has gradually reopened.
In recent days, Chinese officials have suggested that some people could have been infected by packages from abroad, including a woman in the capital whom authorities said had no contact with other infected people.
She tested positive for a variant similar to those found in North America.
China Post has published a statement ordering workers to disinfect the outer packaging of all international mail “as soon as possible” and requiring employees handling foreign letters and packages to receive booster vaccine shots.
The postal service also asked the public to reduce purchases and deliveries from “countries and regions with a high overseas epidemic risk” and said domestic mail should be handled in different areas to prevent cross-contamination.
Both the World Health Organisation and the US Centers for Disease Control have said the risk of being infected from contaminated surfaces – known as fomite transmission – is low and becomes less likely as time passes.
Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious diseases expert at Singapore’s Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital, told AFP a more likely explanation was the silent spread from asymptomatic people who had received false negatives in initial PCR tests.
“The virus may survive transiently on inanimate objects, but the passage from overseas to China would have been way beyond transient,” he said.
China reported 127 new locally transmitted virus cases on Tuesday.
BORIS JOHNSON APOLOGIZES FOR COVID PARTIES
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has insisted “no one told me it was against the rules” as he faced fresh questions over the Friday lockdown-busting “bring your own booze” parties at No. 10 Downing Street.
The ashen-faced PM repeated his defence that he believed the May 2020 booze bash was a “work event” but said he was “deeply sorry”.
According to The Sun, he fiercely denied Dominic Cummings’ allegations he was warned about the happy hour staff drinks in the Downing St garden.
He said: “I can tell you categorically, categorically, that nobody told me and nobody said that this was something that was against the rules or was a breach of the Covid rules, or we were doing something that wasn’t a work event.
“Because, frankly, I don’t think, I can’t imagine why on earth it would have gone ahead or why it would have been allowed to go ahead.”
The PM also personally apologised to the Queen for the two parties held the night before Prince Philip’s socially-distanced funeral.
Visibly upset, he stared at the floor and sighed heavily as he was asked about the gatherings.
He then said: “I deeply and bitterly regret that happened and I can only renew my apologies both to Her Majesty and to the country for misjudgements that were made and for which I take full responsibility.”
SHOCK FINDINGS OF ISRAELI STUDIES
Fourth doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19 are only “partially” effective for the Omicron variant of the virus, the authors of an Israeli trial said on Monday, local time.
A team from Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv began conducting a trial in December on fourth doses of coronavirus vaccines, inoculating 154 hospital personnel with Pfizer jabs and 120 other volunteers with Moderna doses.
Preliminary results of the trial “have shown that the vaccines are safe and have shown to produce substantial antibodies, but are only partially effective in defending against the Omicron variant,” the hospital said in a statement.
Professor Gili Regev-Yochay, who leads the study, said that while there was an increase in antibodies after administering a fourth dose, it nonetheless “only offers a partial defender against the virus” for those infected with the Omicron variant.
The vaccines were “extremely effective against the earlier variants,” Regev-Yochay noted.
Israel was among the first countries to launch mass immunisation campaigns for its population.
It then began offering booster shots last summer, and has since greenlighted fourth shots for elderly and vulnerable populations.
More than 537,000 Israelis have received a fourth dose of vaccine, according to the health ministry’s latest figures.
More than 80 per cent of Israel’s adult residents have received two coronavirus vaccine shots and more than half have also been given a booster.
MODERNA PREDICTS A SINGLE JAB TO PREVENT COVID, FLU
Moderna hopes to launch a single dose vaccination that will protect against both Covid and the flu within two years.
The company hopes the new vaccine – that will also offer protection against respiratory virus RSV – will be available by the 2023 winter.
“Our goal is to be able to have a single annual booster so that we don’t have compliance issues where people don’t want to get two to three shots a winter,” Moderna chief executive Stephane Bancel said at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
He has previously said a fourth shot of the vaccine may be needed later this year as the protection gained from booster shots declined over time.
GREEK FINES FOR UNVACCINATED
People aged over 60 in Greece who refuse to be vaccinated will be fined – starting with an initial payment and then regular fines each month until they are vaccinated.
The initial fine will be 50 euros ($79AUD) and then increase to 100 euros ($158AUD) a month.
The Greek Government said the fines will be collected through the tax office and be used to fund the health system.
A vaccine mandate for over 60s was announced by Greece late last year. Vaccination passes will expire in February for the entire population who have not had their booster shot.
Greece’s Health Minister Thanos Plevris said older people are being targeted because of the impact they had on the health system.
BABY DIES FROM COVID
A three-week-old baby has died from Covid-19 in Qatar in a rare child fatality from the illness in the Gulf country.
Child deaths from Covid-19 are infrequent but health authorities in several countries have registered a rise in childhood infections since the spread of the Omicron variant.
“A three-week-old baby has sadly died as a result of severe infection from Covid-19,” the emirate’s public health ministry said in a statement.
“The baby had no other known medical or hereditary conditions”, and was the second child to have died in the country since the pandemic began, it added.
The Qatari ministry said youngsters have generally been less at risk of severe Covid infection than older people, but that “a greater number of children are being infected in this current wave and needing medical care than in previous waves”.
Gas-rich Qatar has officially recorded almost 300,000 cases of coronavirus and around 600 deaths, from 2.6 million residents.
Cases have surged in recent weeks, and in late December Qatar’s main health care provider suspended leave for all medical and administrative staff dealing with Covid-19 cases.
“Despite being rare, most countries around the world have sadly recorded deaths among young children,” the ministry said.
UK MAKES BIG COVID ISOLATION CHANGE
While British researchers recently said babies were more likely to get Omicron, the United Kingdom is moving forward with plans to scrap legal requirements for people to self isolate after they are infected with Covid-19.
Close contact rules and mask wearing in some indoor settings are also going to be overhauled, as Prime Minister Boris Johnson tries to regain authority after being badly damaged by revelations of Downing St parties during lockdown.
“Lots of legal requirements were put in place during the pandemic,” a government source told The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
“As we come into a stage where things are more manageable and those legal restrictions may no longer be necessary, we will look to remove them promptly from the statute book.
“The Prime Minister is obviously determined to get back to normal as soon as we can,” the source said.
Other measures that include vaccine passports and work from home rules will be reviewed at the end of January.
Covid cases have been falling in the UK, down to 70,924 on Sunday, the lowest level since December 15.
OMICRON PEAK STILL TO COME IN US
US Surgeon General Dr Vivek Murthy has warned that the Omicron surge of coronavirus cases had not yet peaked in America, saying that the next few weeks would be very difficult in many parts of the country as hospitalisations and deaths rise.
Speaking on CNN on Sunday local time, Dr Murthy said that while there had been “good news” with cases plateauing in New York and New Jersey, other parts of the US were not seeing similar results.
“The challenge is that the entire country is not moving at the same pace,” he said, adding “we shouldn’t expect a national peak in the coming days”.
“The next few weeks will be tough,” he said.
The highly contagious Omicron variant has fuelled an explosive surge of known cases, with an average of more than 800,000 new cases a day reported on Saturday, according to a New York Times database.
The Omicron crisis has brought into sharp focus America’s lack of adequate testing supplies, with Americans now emptying chemists of costly rapid tests — a boxed set of two tests ranges from A$20 to A$35 — and creating long lines at testing sites.
The federal government has promised to distribute one billion rapid at-home coronavirus tests to Americans, limiting each household to request four free tests. And new federal rules require insurance companies to cover up to eight at-home tests per member a month.
But with the test orders and reimbursement processes affected by delays, Americans will likely not have tests in hand for weeks, which may be too late in some places where demand is high as infections spread.
“We’ve ordered too few testing kits, so our testing capacity has continued to lag behind each wave,” Tom Bossert, the homeland security Adviser to former President Donald Trump, said on US TV on Sunday local time.
“It’s too little and too late, but noteworthy for the next wave.”
JOHNSON ‘BROKE THE LAW’
Meanwhile, Britain’s main opposition leader on Sunday local time accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson of breaking the law, but the government vowed changes after an explosive series of revelations about lockdown-breaching parties.
In the latest, Mr Johnson’s wife Carrie was photographed on the front page of the Sunday Telegraph embracing a friend at a September 2020 party, in violation of the then rules on social distancing.
Carrie Johnson “regrets the momentary lapse”, a spokesman told the newspaper, after she was also pictured with the prime minister and others enjoying drinks in the Downing Street garden.
At least six politicians in Mr Johnson’s Conservative party have now called publicly for him to quit, while others say they are awaiting the findings of an internal inquiry by senior civil servant Sue Gray.
“I have regretfully come to the conclusion that Boris Johnson’s position is now untenable, that his resignation is the only way to bring this whole unfortunate episode to an end and I am working with colleagues to impress that view on Number 10,” former Minister Tim Loughton tweeted.
Labour leader Keir Starmer, who is enjoying an opinion poll surge on the back of the Downing Street “partygate” allegations, said the facts were already clear.
“I think he broke the law. I think he’s as good as admitted that he broke the law,” Starmer told BBC television, accusing Mr Johnson also of lying to parliament.
Gray only has the remit to establish the facts, he added, calling for the police to look into a possible criminal inquiry once her report is out.
“The prime minister has degraded the office of prime minister and he has lost full authority not only in his own party, but in the country,” Mr Starmer said.
After weeks of denials and stonewalling, Mr Johnson last week apologised in parliament for at least one boozy event organised by his staff which he attended in May 2020, when Britons were banned from socialising.
Two other parties were held in April 2021 as the Queen prepared to bury Prince Philip, her husband of 73 years. Downing Street sent apologies to Buckingham Palace, calling them “deeply regrettable”.
But those were not isolated events, according to Saturday’s Daily Mirror, which published a photograph of a fridge being delivered to a Downing Street back door in December 2020 for “Wine time Fridays”.
Reports at the weekend said Mr Johnson plans to reset his premiership with a clear-out of top aides and a blitz of policy announcements, including an easing of current Covid restrictions on January 26.
Conservative party chairman Oliver Dowden indicated that the restrictions in England would indeed be lifted, as a surge in infections from the Omicron variant over the New Year begins to fade.
Mr Starmer agreed with the need to lift the curbs “as soon as possible” if government scientists agree, but noted the backdrop of political scandal.
“I want them to be lifted because the medical science says they should be lifted, not simply because the prime minister is in a real mess and he’s desperately trying to get out of it,” the Labour leader said.
OMICRON REACHES BEIJING
An Omicron case has been detected in Beijing, officials in the Chinese capital said, as the country battles multiple outbreaks of the highly transmissible coronavirus variant ahead of the Winter Olympics.
The announcement comes a day after the southern city of Zhuhai imposed travel restrictions on residents as a mass testing drive uncovered seven infections.
Millions of people across the country have been ordered to stay home in recent weeks, with scores of domestic flights cancelled and factories shut down, as the country attempts to control a spate of small coronavirus outbreaks, including several from the Omicron variant, ahead of next month’s Beijing Olympics.
One locally transmitted Omicron case was discovered in the capital’s Haitian district, home to many tech company headquarters, city official Pang Xinghuo said at a press conference, a rare breach of Beijing’s tightly-guarded Covid-19 defences.
Authorities are testing the other occupants of the patient’s residential compound and office building, and have restricted access to 17 locations linked to infected person, Pang said.
Beijing has long barred people from parts of the country that have reported cases, while requiring all arrivals to provide recent Covid-19 tests.
Residents have also been urged in recent weeks not to leave the city for the upcoming Spring Festival holiday.
On Friday, the coastal city of Zhuhai, which borders the gambling hub Macau, said Omicron had been detected in one mildly ill and six asymptomatic patients.
Zhuhai officials have asked residents to avoid leaving the city “unless necessary”, with those who are required to show negative Covid test results within the past 24 hours.
The city had launched mass testing for its population of 2.4 million people on Friday after a Covid case was detected in neighbouring Zhongshan earlier in the week.
Businesses including beauty salons, card rooms, gyms and cinemas were ordered to close on Thursday, with officials announcing the suspension of public bus routes in parts of the city.
China has kept Covid-19 cases relatively low throughout the pandemic with its zero-tolerance strategy of immediately ordering mass testing and strict lockdowns when infections are detected.
Harsher lockdowns have been imposed on China’s smaller cities where millions of people have been ordered to stay home and get tested, while economic hubs such as Shanghai and Beijing have locked down and tested only specific neighbourhoods in more targeted efforts.
But the fast-spreading Omicron variant has tested that strategy in recent weeks, appearing in the port city of Tianjin close to Beijing before spreading to the central city of Anyang.
National Health Commission spokesman Mi Feng told reporters on Saturday that the country faced a “twofold challenge” from both the Delta and Omicron strains of the virus.
He warned that regions that had not yet seen outbreaks “must not relax” their prevention measures and “strengthen risk auditing”.
The country reported 104 domestically transmitted Covid-19 cases on Saturday.
More Coverage
Read related topics:Pfizer
State’s big move on cutting-edge vaccines
One Aussie state has revealed its next move on a major vaccine development project – which promises to change the way it responds to future health challenges.
Read more
$1.1m plan to overhaul Long Covid, chronic fatigue care
Guidelines to treat the 750,000-plus Australians who have Long Covid and chronic fatigue syndrome are more than two decades old. See the plan to fix them.
Read more