Four months of freezing temperatures? Yikes, that must have hurt.
And you're totally right about the Omicron vaccine being somewhat useful. With how contagious the variant is, it's a lot more likely than it was with Delta that future variants will come from it.
I'm a little confused about the projected timeline. Pfizer says March, but March for what? Trials? Or actual availability to at least some part of the population? Moderna, on the other hand, says not until the fall. And representatives of both have made statements about developing a vaccine that "includes" the Omicron spike, suggesting a multivalent vaccine. This is all a bit hard to parse.
I would expect that a more antigen-diverse vaccine (such as an Omicron-included one) would also help to avoid the phenomenon of "original antigenic sin". (I think I got that right.)
"Original antigenic sin," meaning a tendency of the immune system to favor producing responses to the first variant of a particular pathogen that it is exposed to rather than effectively responding to newer variants, can be unpredictable. It's possible that using more diverse boosters, or even a multivalent vaccine, could avoid or reduce this problem. It's also possible, however, that it won't. I'd like to avoid commenting on this until we know a bit more about the immune response dynamics here.
Four months of freezing temperatures? Yikes, that must have hurt.
And you're totally right about the Omicron vaccine being somewhat useful. With how contagious the variant is, it's a lot more likely than it was with Delta that future variants will come from it.
I'm a little confused about the projected timeline. Pfizer says March, but March for what? Trials? Or actual availability to at least some part of the population? Moderna, on the other hand, says not until the fall. And representatives of both have made statements about developing a vaccine that "includes" the Omicron spike, suggesting a multivalent vaccine. This is all a bit hard to parse.
I wonder what this means for kids. Moderna recently clarified recent public statements to say they expect data for young children in March (see: https://investors.modernatx.com/Statements--Perspectives/Statements--Perspectives-Details/2022/Statement-on-COVID-19-Vaccine-Clinical-Studies-in-Children--Adolescents/default.aspx). Pfizer expects results for their three-dose schedule in roughly the same group a month later (see: https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/pfizer-expects-latest-covid-19-vaccine-data-kids-under-5-by-april-2022-01-05/). So is the plan to give adults the Omicron vaccine and kids the Wuhan vaccine, or what? Of course, there isn't even an Omicron vaccine yet, so I'm sure there's not really much of a plan, yet, either; but I hope someone is thinking about it!
I have a lot of questions too, similar to yours. At this time, though, I don't have answers.
I'm glad to read that you're feeling better.
I would expect that a more antigen-diverse vaccine (such as an Omicron-included one) would also help to avoid the phenomenon of "original antigenic sin". (I think I got that right.)
"Original antigenic sin," meaning a tendency of the immune system to favor producing responses to the first variant of a particular pathogen that it is exposed to rather than effectively responding to newer variants, can be unpredictable. It's possible that using more diverse boosters, or even a multivalent vaccine, could avoid or reduce this problem. It's also possible, however, that it won't. I'd like to avoid commenting on this until we know a bit more about the immune response dynamics here.