Protection by Vaccines and Previous Infection Against the Omicron Variant of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2
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Abstract
BACKGROUND: The Omicron variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) evades immunity conferred by vaccines and previous infections. METHODS: We used a Cox proportional hazards model and a logistic regression on individual-level population-wide data from the Czech Republic to estimate risks of infection and hospitalization, including severe states. RESULTS: A recent (≤2 months) full vaccination reached vaccine effectiveness (VE) of 43% (95% confidence interval [CI], 42%-44%) against infection by Omicron compared to 73% (95% CI, 72%-74%) against Delta. A recent booster increased VE to 56% (95% CI, 55%-56%) against Omicron infection compared to 90% (95% CI, 90%-91%) for Delta. The VE against Omicron hospitalization of a recent full vaccination was 45% (95% 95% CI, 29%-57%), with a recent booster 87% (95% CI, 84%-88%). The VE against the need for oxygen therapy due to Omicron was 57% (95% CI, 32%-72%) for recent vaccination, 90% (95% CI, 87%-92%) for a recent booster. Postinfection protection against Omicron hospitalization declined from 68% (95% CI, 68%-69%) at ≤6 months to 13% (95% CI, 11%-14%) at >6 months after a previous infection. The odds ratios for Omicron relative to Delta were 0.36 (95% CI, .34-.38) for hospitalization, 0.24 (95% CI, .22-.26) for oxygen, and 0.24 (95% CI, .21-.28) for intensive care unit admission. CONCLUSIONS: Recent vaccination still brings substantial protection against severe outcome for Omicron.
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The findings were consistent with those of other studies of vaccine effectiveness against omicron infection.
“Notwithstanding these limitations, findings were consistent with those of other studies of vaccine effectiveness against omicron infection (BA.1 or BA.2 subvariants were not specified).27,32-36”
From Effects of Previous Infection and Vaccination on Symptomatic Omicron Infections (2022) · cites this paper as [35]
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Omicron escapes the majority of existing SARS-CoV-2 neutralizing antibodies
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SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-B.1.1.529 leads to widespread escape from neutralizing antibody responses
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Structural basis of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron immune evasion and receptor engagement
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“This rapid 62 spread was at least in part brought about by a degree of immune evasion due to a 63 large number of mutations in the viral S-protein, which led to changes in epitopes 64 recognised by antibodies elicited by vaccination or previous infection [2].”
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- Authors
- Šmíd, M., Berec, L., Přibylová, L., Májek, O., Pavlík, T., Jarkovský, J., Weiner, J., Barusová, T., & Trnka, J.
- Affiliations
- Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ)
- Masaryk University (CZ)
- Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology, Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University , Prague , Czech Republic
- Corresponding author
- Šmíd, Martin
- ORCID
- Venue
- The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2022-04-28
- Volume
- 226
- Issue
- 8
- Pages
- 1385-1390
- ISSN
- 0022-1899 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-6613
- PMC
- PMC9129207
- OpenAlex
- W4225770995
- Cited by
- 67
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 13 · 2023: 20 · 2022: 27
- FWCI
- 8.07
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- The Journal of Infectious Diseases (publishedVersion)
- medRxiv (acceptedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › COVID-19 Clinical Research Studies
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Modeling and Simulation › COVID-19 epidemiological studies
- Keywords
- Omicron variant, SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 vaccines, vaccine effectiveness, booster vaccination, prior infection, post-infection immunity, hospitalization, oxygen therapy, intensive care unit admission, Delta variant, immune evasion
- MeSH terms
- COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Humans, Vaccination, Vaccines
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