But the original "inventor" of the Pfizer vaccine BNT has a somewhat different view. the CEO thinks the vaccine will be effective in preventing severe disease and hospitaliasation and
worries more about the unvaccinated than Omicron.
BioNTech and Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine will likely offer strong protection against any severe disease from the new Omicron virus variant, BioNTech's Chief Executive told Reuters, as the firm weighs the need to upgrade its commonly used shot.
www.reuters.com
(my emphasis)
For anyone interested taking a deep dive into the epidemiology of Covid, British Columbia offers endless opportunities. There is quite granular data available to the public and some of it is very revealing.
I think most notably the effectiveness of vaccination as a pandemic management strategy is starkly illustrated in BC. The Vancouver Coastal Health region, with a population of 1.25 million and the highest provincial vax rates of D1 = 88%, D2 = 83% (total population); D1 = 91%, D2 = 86% (5+ eligibles (5+ is now the eligible benchmark as vaccination is available to that age group up) is seeing the lowest rate of community transmission in the province. Compare that to the least vaccinated health region (Northern), which has a population of 288,000 and the lowest provincial vax rates of D1 = 67%, D2 = 62% (total population); D1 = 71%, D2 = 65% (5+ eligibles) and continues to have the highest levels of community transmission:
New daily rates per 100K population, 7 day moving average
To me this suggests that for all the carry on about boosters, concerned effort still needs to be made in getting the unvaccinated vaccinated! The inventor of BNT is spot on, IMO. Get the vax rates up to 90% as well as worrying about boosters. My sense from the BC data is reaching that 90% mark is as important, if not more, than boosters.
Here are some Canadian sites where the deep data divers can have endless fun:
COVID-19 Regional Surveillance Dashboard,
BCCDC COVID-19 Epidemiology App and
COVID-19 Tracker Canada - Vaccination Tracker.