Early indications from Israel show promise that the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine offers protection against the Omicron strain of COVID, but it is still a big question with this newly-identified variant of concern.
Dr. Jeff Elder, head of emergency medicine at LCMC Health, says previous strains like Alpha, and later Delta, spread more easily, but the vaccines held up well against them.
"And so we're trying to figure out now is this new Omicron variant going to be something like Delta or worse?" said Elder, "or is it something that, you know, vaccines protect us really well against, and we should do really well in handling."
A promising indicator: Israel, where a large part of the population has taken the Pfizer vaccine, has recorded four cases of the Omicron strain, but the number of new cases has remained stable.
