Washington, June 23 (Agency) Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 appear to escape antibody responses among people who previously had Covid-19 infection or those who have been fully vaccinated and even boosted, according to a new research by the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, of Harvard Medical School. However, vaccination against Covid still is likely to provide some protection against severe disease. The research was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Wednesday. According to CNN, the levels of neutralizing antibodies that a previous infection or vaccinations elicit are several times lower against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants compared with the original coronavirus.
Dan Barouch, an author of the paper and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said, “We observed 3-fold reductions of neutralizing antibody titers induced by vaccination and infection against BA4 and BA5 compared with BA1 and BA2, which are already substantially lower than the original COVID-19 variants. “Our data suggest that these new Omicron subvariants will likely be able to lead to surges of infections in populations with high levels of vaccine immunity as well as natural BA1 and BA2 immunity. “However, it is likely that vaccine immunity will still provide substantial protection against severe disease with BA4 and BA5.” Similar findings were reported from a research by the scientists at Columbia University.