Dr. John Vanchiere, Pediatric Infectious Disease Specialist LSU Health Shreveport
As the state reports more probable cases of the Omicron variant in Louisiana, Pfizer said the third dose of their vaccine may offer more protection to the variant as opposed to only two doses. LSU Health Shreveport infectious disease specialist Doctor John Vanchiere is overseeing clinical trials of the Pfizer vaccine at the university.
“This early look of just a few patient’s blood that they could test shows that if someone who’d already gotten a booster dose of the vaccine that they did actually have very good protection against the Omicron variant,” said Vanchiere.
Vanchiere said the preliminary data is only for those who received Pfizer vaccine doses and a Pfizer booster. And for those who might have mixed and matched their vaccine and booster…
“Other mix and match situations are also under study because we want to know particularly how well those other combinations will boost and probably a week or ten days before we get any information about those,” said Vanchiere.
As for if the latest variant is prompting more people to get vaccinated or boosted, Vanchiere said they’ve seen a significant increase, he said they’re administering 400 to 600 doses a day and about 100 to 150 are first doses of the vaccine.
“Of those first doses about half of them are in kids and the other half are in adults who are now changing their mind and coming to get vaccinated,” said Vanchiere.
Vanchiere said until there’s a higher vaccination rate we are at a precarious point with the pandemic where the virus is able to easily mutate.
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