“I doubt we can end the pandemic without an adapted vaccine”

Berlin A study from South Africa provides indications of the need for a vaccine adapted to the Corona virus variant Omikron. Seven Germans were infected with the Omikron variant of the corona virus despite the booster vaccination.

Wolfgang Preiser, member of the research consortium that discovered the variant, comments on the results in an interview with the “Tagesspiegel”: “There are very many breakthrough infections. What we did not know is that even a booster vaccination with Biontech / Pfizer does not prevent this. ”

According to the researchers, all seven people had received at least two of their three vaccinations with an mRNA vaccine, the booster vaccinations were at least a month ago. The omicron variant was detected in five, and the researchers concluded this in two from epidemiological contexts.

At the same time, Preiser warns: “Of course you shouldn’t misunderstand that vaccination doesn’t help. On the contrary: It only shows that even the best possible vaccination is obviously not enough to prevent infection – which we already suspected. ”