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According to a clinical trial conducted in South Africa, the Johnson & Johnson booster vaccine provided strong protection against the Omicron variant, greatly reducing the risk of hospitalization.

StudyComparing more than 69,000 supplemented healthcare workers to unvaccinated South Africans, it found that the two vaccines reduced the risk of hospitalization from Omicron by nearly 85 percent. In contrast, another study in South Africa found that the two Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines approximately reduced the risk of hospitalization. 70 percent.

Although the US Food and Drug Administration authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a booster shot, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that other vaccines be preferred. CDC expressed its concerns rare but life-threatening blood clots It is linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

However, the authors of the new study, which was published on a preprint server and has not yet been peer-reviewed, said the results are important for Turkey. Vaccination studies in Africa, where is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is a mainstay Covid public health efforts. A second dose of vaccine could prevent an increase in hospitalizations as the continent prepares for a wave of Omicron cases.

In a different clinical trial that ended in September, while Delta was still the dominant variant worldwide, Johnson & Johnson found that the second dose of its vaccine was given eight weeks after the first dose. greatly increased its effectiveness. In the US arm of the trial, efficacy against mild to severe Covid-19 increased to 94 percent, compared to 74 percent for the single shot. At trial sites in 10 countries, the vaccine protected all volunteers from serious illness.

These results prompted South Africa to initiate a trial in November among healthcare workers who had received a dose of the vaccine six to nine months ago. When the Omicron variant started to rise in South Africa in late November, the researchers who ran the trial began tracking how well healthcare workers were doing against this variant, and found that it worked well.

This result was somewhat surprising, given that antibodies from people who had received a dose of the vaccine were unable to prevent Omicron from infecting cells in laboratory experiments.

It is possible that the booster vaccines have raised antibodies to protective levels. While antibodies help the body fend off infections, it’s just one of many parts of the immune system.

Some immune cells help fight Covid by attacking virus-infected cells. In A study published online on TuesdaySouth African researchers found that immune cells from people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccines recognized Omicron-infected cells almost as much as they recognized cells infected with other variants.

It is possible that the Johnson & Johnson booster vaccines, in addition to increasing antibodies, may also increase the army of immune cells that can fight Omicron.