Need for COVID-Specific Vaccine – LIVE Updates on Omicron Variant

Pfizer and Moderna, a biotechnology company, revealed this week that they have started clinical studies in which individuals will be given Omicron-based vaccinations.

Many scientists say that a Covid variant-specific vaccination is unnecessary, given that current vaccines are efficacious against all versions, including Omicron. Global vaccine developers, on the other hand, have rushed to develop vaccines against the strongly mutated as well as transmissible Omicron variant. Both Pfizer as well as Moderna, a biotechnology company, declared this week that they have begun clinical trials wherein people will be given Omicron-based vaccines.

Agreement and Disagreement

However, public-health officials and infectious-disease experts disagree about whether these vaccines are necessary or perhaps even practical, as per Nature. Some argue that getting an Omicron-specific vaccine isn’t worth it since cases can drop well before vaccines are finished. Others argue that it’s impossible to foresee if the next SARS-CoV-2 variation would be similar to Omicron, casting doubt on the effectiveness of an Omicron-specific vaccine.

People have a high level of trust in existing vaccines, although it is critical to debate if the composition should be updated. Around then, Omicron’s prominence as a variation might be decreasing. A vaccination like this could work against the variation that takes over after Omicron, particularly when the virus stays on that genetic path. However, no one can predict how the virus will evolve. Boosters of the Covid vaccine are therefore effective against Omicron, although scientists warn that this is not a feasible or long-term strategy.

Study

Meanwhile, according to the study, various experts, including those from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) in the United States and the worldwide Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), are supporting research to produce a pan-coronavirus vaccine. Several strains of SARS-CoV-2 as well as other forms of coronavirus can be protected by a pan-coronavirus vaccine. The World Health Organization is also embarking on a central mechanism to update Covid immunizations, similar to how flu vaccines are updated now. According to The Telegraph, the technique is modelled after the system used to decide on “variant updates” for flu vaccines, which are revised every 6 months.