GREENSBORO, N.C. — Doctors are asking people to roll up their sleeves and get their booster shot, despite limited information about how effective current COVID-19 vaccines are against the omicron variant.
Pfizer released preliminary information about how effective its vaccines are against the new variant. The vaccine manufacturer said preliminary tests show a third dose of the shot provides protection against the new omicron variant.
Moderna and Johnson & Johnson said they're still testing their vaccine efficacy against the omicron variant.
Dr. Cynthia Snider, medical director for infection prevention at Cone Health said there's still a lot to learn about the impacts of the omicron variant and how the vaccines hold up against it.
"It's still too early to really come to any conclusions but the preliminary data we're seeing is that they’re not seeing as many severe cases but again it's somewhat comparing apples to oranges," she said, "We have an area that’s affected that may not have as many folks that are vaccinated. The folks that are getting infected with omicron seem to be younger and generally have fewer health problems and don’t have severe disease in general. So we're trying to take as much information as we can."
Dr. Snider said Pfizer has run tests and studied the vaccine and the omicron variant with people who have three doses compared to people who have two.
"They’ve looked at patients, they took their blood, folks who have had either two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and three doses, they compared the antibody titers against the omicron variant strain. They know that folks who had three doses of the Pfizer vaccine, their neutralizing antibody titers were higher," she said.
Snider said the common theme is those who are vaccinated are better protected against the virus.
"If anyone’s been waiting to get their booster shot this is the time," she said.
Mack Canady got his Moderna series and the booster dose. He said he's anxiously waiting to see what data the vaccine maker releases about protection against omicron.
"I'd like to see it. I'll make the decision whether we get another booster after we hear how effective it's going to be with the new virus strain," he said. "Obviously I’m concerned about it. We're still very careful with where we go and generally speaking if we go to a restaurant somewhere we wear our masks in the door and once we get seated and get something to eat something to drink we take the mask off and when we leave we put it back on."
He said if Moderna finds even people who are boosted will need another dose, he'll get right in line to get one, and he encourages others to do the same.
"Ho get the shot. It's part of growing up in the world we live in. I can remember as a kid standing in line to get a polio vaccination at school," he said.