Health officials urge for vaccine protection against Omicron variant

Employees at DHR Health in Edinburg prepare vials of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, Nov. 22. (Courtesy Photo)

As concerns mount over the newly discovered Omicron variant of the coronavirus, local health officials stressed the importance of vaccinating against COVID-19, noting that even if currently available vaccines are not as effective against the variant, they still provide some level of protection.

A DHR Health employee gives a local resident his booster shot against COVID-19 on Aug. 18. Tuesday through Friday, DHR Health in Edinburg administers vaccines to the public.
(Courtesy Photo)

In a manuscript published Monday in DHR Proceedings, the hospital system’s health sciences journal, Dr. Manish Singh, CEO of DHR Health, and Dr. Sohail Rao, president and CEO of DHR Health Institute for Research and Development summed up what is currently known about the variant.

Omicron, first detected in South Africa last month, is classified as a variant of concern and has 32 mutations in the spike protein, which is the region of the virus that binds to a protein that allows the virus to enter a person’s cells.

“While most of the mutations in the Spike region of B.1.1.529 were similar to that in the Delta variant, some were unique which raised serious concerns about the transmissibility of this variant,” they wrote.

Alarmingly, they added that data showed the new variant’s rate of infection could possibly be 100 times higher than the delta variant.

“Some of those mutations would increase, potentially could increase, its transmissibility, maybe even make it more infectious,” Rao said during an interview Monday. “There’s a possibility that the current diagnostic tests that we use may not be valuable in identifying this particular virus, the variant, and lastly but more importantly, that there might be some reduction in the immunity that has been conferred on us by either previous COVID infection or by vaccination.”

Rao said there could possibly be cases of the variant in the Rio Grande Valley and that he and Singh quickly penned the manuscript because they knew the community needed the information.

“They need to know — what do we know and what do we not know about this particular virus?” Rao said.

Even with questions about the effectiveness of the vaccines against the Omicron variant, Rao said the most important thing people could do to protect themselves is to get vaccinated if they haven’t already, or get their booster shot.

The recommendation was offered at the federal level as well with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention strengthened its recommendation for booster doses among individuals 18 years and older.

“Everyone ages 18 and older should get a booster shot either when they are 6 months after their initial Pfizer or Moderna series or 2 months after their initial J&J vaccine,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a news release.

“The recent emergence of the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and prevention efforts needed to protect against COVID-19,” Walensky added. “Early data from South Africa suggest increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and scientists in the United States and around the world are urgently examining vaccine effectiveness related to this variant.”

Walensky encouraged the approximately 47 million adults who had not yet received their vaccine to get immunized as soon as possible and to vaccinate their children.

“I also want to encourage people to get a COVID-19 test if they are sick,” Walensky said. “Increased testing will help us identify Omicron quickly.”

In addition to the belief that the vaccines still afford some level of protection, Rao added that those who do not get vaccinated allow for the development of variants such as the Omicron variant.

“Whenever (viruses) are in an environment such as an unvaccinated individual or an individual who is immunocompromised where the immune system is not geared up to respond in a timely fashion to the virus, the virus has an opportunity to multiply,” Rao said. “As it multiplies, it actually can create mutations because multiplication means that you have a greater chance of an error and when that error happens, that’s called mutation.”

He said that leads to mutations that develop into variants of the virus.

“So people who are unvaccinated, they are mutation factories, they’re variant factories,” Rao said.

Now that this variant developed and is spreading, vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are testing their vaccines’ response to the variant and are preparing to adjust their vaccines if necessary.

But even if the current version of the vaccines provide a reduced response, Rao said it simply means that it is a slightly delayed protection raised by the immune system because of certain mutations on this particular variant that one’s immune system may not recognize.

“Immune response may not be very robust but it’s going to be there, it’s going to be better than no immune response at all and that’s why it is important that people still go ahead and get vaccinated because they will get some level of protection,” he said.