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| - Last Updated on February 5, 2022 by Neelam Singh
Quick Take
An article published on a blogging site by an American writer and conspiracy theorist Alexander Berenson claims that vaccinated people are more likely to get the omicron virus than unvaccinated people. We fact-checked and found the claim to be False.
The Claim
Alexander Berenson published a blog on Substack titled, “Has Covid vaccine efficacy turned negative?”.
Within the article Berenson claimed, “We already know vaccine protection against earlier variants of Sars-Cov-2 falls sharply within months of the second dose, as the vaccine-generated antibodies fade. But the new data go a step further, showing that previously vaccinated people are actually more likely to contract Omicron”.
Fact Check
Are vaccinated people more likely to get Omicron than unvaccinated people?
No. There is no evidence that proves the Omicron variant is more likely to spread among vaccinated people. Alex Berenson misinterpreted the data of Scotland, Canada, Denmark and Iceland and skewed the available statistics to spread misinformation.
In these countries, fully vaccinated people are the majority of the population. Due to this, more vaccinated people could test positive for Covid-19 variants than unvaccinated people.
Berenson has previously spread misinformation about coronavirus and was banned from Twitter last year. The news coverage is available here and here.
Can the Omicron variant escape vaccine immunity?
Yes. But to a certain extent only. A study has shown that the Omicron variant can escape vaccine immunity in fully vaccinated people and those who have received one booster shot. However, the number of such cases will be less than infected cases of unvaccinated people.
The available studies have shown that the vaccine cannot provide complete protection against Covid-19 variants. Vaccines can only prevent you from getting the virus from a few minutes of contact but not from someone you spend the day with.
Another study claims that the Omicron variant can escape the natural immunity, which means the chance of reinfection increases after the natural recovery from Covid-19 infection.
The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) has discussed Covid-19 vaccines do not prevent transmission completely in detail here.
The World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe website states, “Vaccination protects us from the variants currently in circulation – including Omicron – but is also likely to give protection from severe disease due to future mutations of COVID-19. It’s really not wise to cross your fingers and hope for the best with Omicron, because the variant will find those people who remain unvaccinated”.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website clearly states, “People who are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines and get COVID-19 are less likely to develop serious illness than those who are unvaccinated and get COVID-19.”
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