Study suggests Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine may only partially protect against Omicron

There is not significant data yet on how vaccines from Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and other drugmakers hold up against the new variant. All the manufacturers, including Pfizer, are expected to release their own data within weeks

The Omicron variant of the coronavirus can partially evade the protection from Pfizer Inc and partner BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine, the research head of a laboratory at Africa Health Research Institute in South Africa said on Tuesday.

Alex Sigal, a professor at the Africa Health Research Institute, said on Twitter there was "a very large drop" in neutralization of the Omicron variant relative to an earlier strain of COVID. The lab tested blood from 12 people who had been vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, according to a manuscript posted on the website for his lab. The preliminary data in the manuscript has not yet been peer reviewed.