Chinese Doctor Li Rongguo Epidemic Notes No. 27: A Brief Discussion on The Omicron New Coronavirus Variant Virus and Protective Antibodies

Every year on the fourth Thursday of November, Thanksgiving Day in the United States is also a federal holiday. It is a traditional festival for people to thank the luck they have experienced in the past year and celebrate the fruits of their labor; it is also a day for families, relatives and friends to reunite happily! In Manhattan, New York City, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is the nation's largest thanksgiving celebration parade. The parade began in 1924 and takes place every year on Thanksgiving. From 1942 to 1944, the parade was suspended due to World War II; in 2020, large parades and viewings were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, with the vigorous introduction of vaccinations, by November 24, 77% of new York City's population had received at least one dose of the vaccine, and the epidemic also stabilized. This year's Thanksgiving Day is November 25th, and the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is also held as scheduled.

That day, my family and I arrived at the intersection of Sixth Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan before nine o'clock. When we arrived, it was crowded but not crowded; but by the side of the street, there were three or four stories of people standing closely; we chose to stand on the steps of the sidewalk in front of a large commercial building. Half an hour or so later, a procession from the north side of Sixth Avenue appeared, and the audience on both sides cheered! And they picked up their mobile phones and cameras and kept shooting. The first thing that appears is a float and a square team with the Macy logo, and on the float is a cute brown turkey with a gray round hat on its head, its head slowly turns left and right and gently nods up and down, its mouth is closed, its wings slowly swing up and down, and its tail feathers unfold like a peacock opening the screen! It's a big turkey! On the float stood young people holding flower balls in their hands, constantly greeting the crowd on both sides. The young girl walking on the ground with a flower ball in her hand and singing and dancing forward, full of youth and vitality! Subsequently, a representative and marked different places, companies and organizations of the floats have appeared, the car stands a lot of film and television and sports stars, in front of or behind the car often have a variety of large cartoon character inflatable balls, floating in the air, by the walking people to pull the long rope continuously forward. Between the floats there is a band and a dancing party that performs while marching. Spectators on both sides continued to cheer and greet the procession! The final float is Santa Claus riding a sleigh pulled by a reindeer, bringing the audience to a climax! Finally, there's the New York City Police's cycling team and police cars. The procession ran along Sixth Avenue, from north to south, to Macy's Herald Squre, macy's flagship store on 34th Street.

However, on November 26, the day after Thanksgiving, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the new coronavirus variant virus B.1.1.529 as a variant of concern, named Omicron. Omicron first discovered in South Africa that there are up to 34 variants in spike proteins, increasing the risk of virus transmission! This heavy bad news triggered a plunge in the Wall Street stock market that day! Soon, Omicron cases were detected in the United States, which accounted for 6% of all COVID-19 cases in the United States on December 4, and 71.6% on December 25, 20 days later. New York City's daily new cases also soared from 1,870 on November 24 to 36,287 on December 29, an 18-fold increase! Now the data shows that Omicron is extremely transmissible, resulting in unvaccinated people are more susceptible to infection, more likely to develop severe disease, need to be hospitalized and lead to death, and vaccinated people are also prone to breakthrough infection; people who have been infected with the new crown virus before are also prone to re-infection. Despite the surge in infections, probably due to the fact that most people have been vaccinated and the virus has changed pathogenicity, many people have symptoms like colds: sore throat for 1 to 3 days, fever, headache, body pain, tiredness, nasal congestion, runny nose and cough. Symptomatic treatment, such as Tylenol or NyQuil, the symptoms are relieved quickly, and the basic recovery is about five days.

The effect of vaccination in preventing severe COVID-19, reducing hospitalizations and reducing deaths is obvious! At this time, the president and government officials not only called for people to get vaccinated, but also for people to get booster injections. When people are fully vaccinated, humoral immunity (mainly protective antibodies) and cellular immunity are developed. Protective antibodies are easy to detect, and now the data show that after six months of full vaccination, protective antibodies will decline, especially in immunocompromised or older people, the decline is more obvious. The purpose of the booster injection is to strengthen the body's immunity to the new crown virus and to restore protective antibodies. Given that everyone's immunity is not the same, some doctors now recommend testing protective antibodies to assess how an individual's immune status changes after vaccination. At the end of October, I did a protective antibody semi-quantitative test (SARS-Cov-2 Semi-Quantitative Total Antibody, Spike) at LabCorp, which resulted in 1,718.0 units/ml (< 0.8 negative, > =0.8 with an exact reading between 2,500). I also had a covid-19 nucleic acid protein antibody (Cov-2IgG) test and it was negative. It shows that I have not been infected with THE new crown virus and that the body's protective antibodies are produced by vaccination. After discussion with the family doctor, it is believed that the concentration of protective antibodies is still high, and the booster injection can be postponed and the test and evaluation will be done again after three months.

Although Omicron is storming the United States and many parts of the world, vaccines are still effective in preventing severe diseases and giving us the dawn of victory over the pandemic! At the same time, it is also important to wear a mask, maintain social distancing, try not to participate in group gatherings, and pay attention to personal hygiene such as washing hands and washing nostrils. In addition, regardless of whether the booster is injected, the protective antibodies can be detected, which can help you understand your immune status after vaccination; if the protective antibodies are low, you should promptly inject the booster or strengthen personal protection.

December 30, 2021