[theold]

Antibodies are not the only important player in a person’s immune response to the virus.

The findings are a welcome departure from a torrent of worrying new data about Omicron. The variant’s mutations enable it to evade many of the antibodies produced either by vaccination or infection with previous variants. 

“The good news is that T cell responses are largely maintained to Omicron,” said Wendy Burgers of the University of Cape Town during a presentation of new research she and her colleagues have carried out in recent days.

Over the past week, it has become increasingly clear that Omicron can deftly evade antibodies, part of the body’s first line of defense, which likely explains why infections with the variant have exploded in many countries.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/15/healt...ggest.html

[Teeth53]

Is Singapore ready for Omicron?

[Teeth53]

Covid-19: 24 Omicron cases detected in Singapore so far, another airport worker positive in early test

[watchfirst9]

https://theprint.in/health/t-cells-more-...dy/504795/

T cells have bigger role in fighting Covid
A type of white blood cell known as T cells take the lead in protecting the body from Covid-19 infection, playing a much bigger role than antibodies, a new study has found.

The findings, published in the journal Cell, suggests that vaccine candidates should aim to elicit a broad immune response that include antibodies as well as T cells to ensure immunity against Covid-19.

The study also points at why older Covid-19 patients are much more vulnerable to the disease. Researchers from La Jolla Institute for Immunology in the US, who did the study, have explained that with increasing age, the reservoir of T cells declines and a body’s immune response becomes less coordinated.

[Teeth53]

Covid-19: 24 Omicron cases detected in Singapore so far, another airport worker positive in early test

He is now recovering in an isolation ward at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.

MOH added that it is ringfencing the case through contact tracing.

The airport staff member, who has had no contact with flight passengers, developed a fever on Dec 8 and sought medical treatment at a general practitioner clinic where he was tested for Covid-19.

The result came back positive for Covid-19 the next day and he was to recover at home.

He was later identified as a close contact of an earlier case who tested positive for Omicron, so his sample was tested on Dec 16 and it came back “preliminarily positive”, MOH said.