Now that the omicron variant is the most common form of COVID-19 in the country, more and more news is coming out about fully vaccinated people testing positive for the virus.
It's well-known that the omicron variant is more transmissible than other COVID-19 variants, but why exactly are so many vaccinated people getting it?
To understand why vaccinated people are testing positive for COVID-19, it's important to understand how vaccination against the virus works. In the U.S., two types of vaccines have been approved to combat the novel coronavirus: messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine and viral vector vaccine.
Both the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are two-dose mRNA vaccines. These vaccines contain lab-created genetic mRNA material from the virus that causes COVID-19. Once it is injected into a patient’s muscle cells, those cells read the mRNA material and create a spike protein before destroying the virus mRNA.
The spike protein displayed on a vaccinated patient’s cells lets their immune system know that protein doesn’t belong there and triggers it to create antibodies. If the patient comes in contact with COVID-19, their immune system will already know to fight off the pathogen.
Viral vector vaccines, such as the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, contains genetic material from COVID-19 inside the shell of a different virus. The genetic material instructs a patient’s cells to make a protein unique to COVID-19 and alters the immune system to fight it.
Mutations related to the spike protein in the omicron variant – which accounted for more than 58 percent of cases in the U.S. as of Dec. 25 – impact the way vaccines work, according to Forbes.
“Depending on how they are counted, there are at least 36 amino acid changes in the Spike (S) protein alone,” said the outlet. “These changes likely account for the decreased sensitivity of Omicron to existing protective antibodies, either via previous infection or vaccine.”
Though more people may be testing positive for COVID-19, symptoms related to the omicron variant appear to be less severe than previous variants.
Indeed, vaccines are mainly designed to prevent severe illness rather than prevent illness altogether, said a virus researcher Louis Mansky of the University of Minnesota, according to the Associated Press.
Booster doses, which have been approved in the U.S. for all three vaccines, could improve their ability to protect patients even further.
“Although two doses of the vaccine may still offer protection against severe disease caused by the Omicron strain, it’s clear from these preliminary data that protection is improved with a third dose of our vaccine,” said Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer.
Since vaccines are effective at preventing severe illness, some people may not realize they have COVID-19, so it is important that people who plan to be around others get tested for the virus. In addition to recommending vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that everyone two years of age and older wear a mask in pubic indoor spaces, and that those who are sick or who have tested positive for COVID-19 follow isolation, quarantine and social distancing protocols.
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