Dr. Rodney Rohde believes those who’ve been fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 will be mostly protected from the Omicron COVID-19 variant. But Rohde, a professor and chair of the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at Texas State University, said data regarding Omicron is ongoing and rapidly changing.
“Will there be breakthrough infections from Delta, Omicron or other variants? Yes, no vaccine is 100% effective as I and others continue to state,” Rohde said. “However, fully vaccinated and now hopefully boosted individuals will be less likely to have severe COVID-19, be hospitalized or die. It is critical for the public to continue to follow all public health mitigation measures — get vaccinated. If vaccinated, get the booster. Whether vaccinated or not, wear a high-quality mask [KN95 or surgical mask] when in high-risk environments.
“Try to maintain distance and good ventilation in high-risk environments, wash your hands, avoid unnecessary travel to high levels of community prevalence of the disease, and be safe to protect those around you that may be immunocompromised,” Rohde added.
Rohde answered several questions the Daily Record had regarding the emerging variant as well as COVID-19 vaccines and boosters.
SMDR: Are there any concerns you’re seeing with the Omicron variant?
Rohde: “Experts are evaluating this virus variant in experimental tests as well as via global observation of clinical cases. The next few weeks will give us more information. We may very well see two COVID-19 variants in circulation in the U.S. in 2022 — Delta among the unvaccinated and Omicron infecting those who had a COVID-19 infection, recovered but were not vaccinated. We must continue to balance with proper time for evaluation and the actual hospital loading (strain) that might occur. Hospital admissions and viral pathology are always lagging indicators in these events.”
SMDR: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently approved booster vaccines for all adults 18 years and older as well as boosters for 16 and 17 year olds. How do boosters help against COVID-19?
Rohde: A booster dose has become important because we are seeing waning anti body levels post six months. To date, CDC reports only 22% of fully vaccinated people in the U.S. have received a booster. Alongside boosters, we must find a way to increase vaccine equity across the world. As long as there are naïve non-immunized or poorly immunized populations [e.g. HIV immunocompromised individuals like in South Africa or anywhere], the virus will have a route to create stronger and more dangerous variants. This is what viruses do. They take the easiest road to mutation and change. This primarily occurs in the unvaccinated, incomplete vaccinated or poorly protected individuals via natural infection.”
SMDR: There’s been discussion regarding mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines. Is it safe to potentially mix and match vaccines, or is it even recommended?
Rohde: “Researchers and the NIH [ongoing study] have reported that mixing and matching of vaccines is safe. If you have already had the Moderna or Pfizer mRNA vaccine, you can be boosted by either. If you had the J&J, one shot, vaccine, then the recommendation is to be boosted with Moderna or Pfizer. For J&J vaccinees, Moderna offers a HUGE boost [76 times] and Pfizer is also really good [35 times]. If one had the Pfizer series, it also gives a 32-time boost to use a Moderna boost. Boosting in general is going to provide one with a very high level of antibody protection going into the winter and coming year.
“In hindsight, the mRNA vaccines should have been given further apart to achieve maximum levels and duration of antibody. Pfizer was given three weeks apart and Moderna at four weeks. Many vaccinologists and other experts have mentioned this is why the third booster is now so important. We need to boost since we didn’t have the convenience of spreading out the 1st two doses of mRNA vaccines due to high mortality, etc. and, the J&J vaccine (one dose) most likely should have been two doses. Again, remember we were in an emergency of needing vaccines in the elderly, immunocompromised and healthcare workers quickly last January/February which created that dosing schedule.”
