Have they tweaked the booster to be effective against Omicron

[Flapjak]

Trying to understand the panic call for booster vaccination wgen a month ago we were patting ourselves on the back for majority being fully vaccinated, now suddenly both those vaccinations are worthless and a booster is necessary and suddenly going to protect us against a variant that has many mutations. Have the scientists tweaked the booster or not, if not, how can they be sure of its effectiveness against omicron . I work in the NHS and not hearing of local hospitals being overwhelmed with people with covid. However we are chronically short staffed because people have had a positive covid test, and very mild symptoms in many cases. Why arent we building capacity in the NHS

Yawn.

I do feel more money needs to be spent on the NHS so every time a new variant appears society doesnt get all these restrictions again.

More staff more wards/buildings somehow. Must be cheaper on the economy and public health in the long run.

A new variant has come along. What do you expect? Would you prefer to wait until they're 100% confident before doing anything and wait for months until it's far, far too late, or for scientists to apply their expertise and evidence they have available to make an educated assessment? Be realistic!

No

You work in the NHS do you OP?

This explains it quite well for me
www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/12/what-makes-boosters-more-effective-than-the-first-two-covid-jabs

Essentially, booster = more antibodies = more chance against Omicron

Building NHS capacity is a long term project

Have they tweaked it for Omicron? No, that will take about 100 days to do and get to production.

How do they know a booster makes a difference against Omicron? Not sure, but I think lab studies - vaccine versus virus in a test tube, or something like that - backed up by early observation of the vaccine status of people who are proved to have Omicron.

Not hearing of local hospitals being overwhelmed…. It’s only 2.5 weeks since Omicron was identified and a couple of weeks since the first case in this country was identified. And it takes 1-2 weeks after first symptoms before people are ill enough to need hospital care. So, it’s too soon to see hospitals overwhelmed.

But you won’t have to wait long. The doubling time for Omicron is 2-3 days, and we had about 50,000 cases today, and it’s estimated 20% of cases in England now are Omicron. So that’s 10,000 Omicron cases today, 20,000 on Thursday, 40,000 by the weekend, 80,000 by the middle of next week, 160,000 for Christmas, 320,000 the Monday after Christmas, over half a million to see in the New Year. That’s new cases per day.

So something needs to happen to interrupt that exponential growth.

@Flapjacker48

You work in the NHS do you OP?

I have a friend on FB who is a nurse who posts a LOT about anti vaccination. It's entirely possible.

I do work in the nhs and am not an anti vaxxer. Questioning the efficacy and effectiveness of a booster when the protection of the first two vaccinations has significantly reduced after 3 - 6 months is not being an 'ant-vaxxer'. Thank you puzzled and devil in a dress for a helpful response .

@Flapjak

I do work in the nhs and am not an anti vaxxer. Questioning the efficacy and effectiveness of a booster when the protection of the first two vaccinations has significantly reduced after 3 - 6 months is not being an 'ant-vaxxer'. Thank you puzzled and devil in a dress for a helpful response .

I agree and think it's a good question! Is it just a case of more antibodies from more shots, but not tweaked at all?

I have had 2 Pfizers so far, the most recent being July. I also had covid in July. As such I think I've probably still got some immunity left. If I get another Pfizer for my booster, I guess it's just a case of topping up what's there, rather than adding anything Omicron-specific.

No. The adjusted vaccines that work against Omicron will be available in about 3 months.

You need to read what UKHSA put out on Friday.
No they haven’t tweaked the vaccines but lab studies show 70% protection against omicron for a third dose.
It’s a no-brainer, especially if you want to continue to have freedoms.
Scientists are working on a specific omicron variant vaccine, but will take 100 days

… and even longer to get into people’s arms.
There is nothing fishy going on… we’re just in a long and difficult pandemic and we are having to fight it as we go along

… and even longer to get into people’s arms.
There is nothing fishy going on… we’re just in a long and difficult pandemic and we are having to fight it as we go along

What is with all these patronising responses ? I asked a similar question earlier and didn’t get all the “do you mop the floors in the NHS?” bollocks

Wow people on here are rude. It was a perfectly acceptable question.

@AnyFucker

What is with all these patronising responses ? I asked a similar question earlier and didn’t get all the “do you mop the floors in the NHS?” bollocks

You don't get to use 'I work in the NHS' to give weight to your opinion when you're clearly lacking the most basic knowledge of how vaccines work.

@AnyFucker

What is with all these patronising responses ? I asked a similar question earlier and didn’t get all the “do you mop the floors in the NHS?” bollocks

Right?!

And to anyone who does mop floors in the NHS, THANK YOU! 🙏🙏🙏

This extra shot will be to just try and get people as protected as possible. I think normal flu and covid (especially the new variant) will make things a tad hectic in Hospital. it makes sense to push the booster.

However (waves a flag) I work with in the NHS ( with pregnant women who by the way have a shocking up take rate on the vaccine) and there are some people who are still able to look at this from both sides. Covid ( in my experience ) tends to attack elderly and vulnerable people ( especially heavily pregnant women) more harshly.

Even though I have had both and booked in for my booster, I still advocate for people to choose if they want the vaccine with out penalties attached. Not every NHS worker is a vaccine militant.

As someone guessed above, the booster raises your antibody levels 5-10 fold higher than after the peak level after two doses( approx four weeks after dose two). As only a percentage will still neutralise omicron the higher the level of your antibodies the greater the chance there will be some that can neutralise omicron.

The ones cleaning ( infection control ) are just as important as anyone else who works in our hospitals and if they didn't do that job the hospital probably couldn't open up
There is nothing wrong with being a cleaner , although I suspect that the op isn't one.
The booster hasn't been tweaked yet , but I'd rather have it than not as it'll give me more protection , along with my other jabs.
I tend to believe the scientists even though I appreciate that many don't.

Erm, no!
The most mutated variant we've seen yet is coming during winter, when the majority of the population were vaccinated several months ago, hence immunity waning. The doubling rate is extraordinary, do the maths and you'll see the whole population will have caught it by Christmas if nothing is done (hence working from home, masks, booster). A minority will always end up in hospital, and a small percentage of 60 million is a very large number...

@Panacotta indeed, it's a very important job. But it's not really 'working in the NHS', is it?

If I designed the cover for a book on genome sequencing, can I say I work in the field of genome sequencing?

Jesus, what happened to NHS Heroes