Does being infected with the omicron variant protect you against delta? What to know

While the coronavirus omicron variant’s rapid spread — even among vaccinated populations — has alarmed health experts and triggered a bleak sense of déjà vu for millions of pandemic-weary Americans, there may be a silver lining.

Emerging research suggests that individuals with COVID-19 caused by omicron develop significant protection against the delta variant.

The laboratory study out of South Africa tested a group of 15 volunteers, both previously vaccinated and not, who were infected with omicron. Blood plasma samples were taken from each, and researchers observed how the antibodies performed in contact with omicron and delta.

The study has not been peer reviewed.

Unsurprisingly, omicron shored up the body’s defenses against that variant, “with neutralisation increasing 14-fold (1400%) over this time,” researchers said.

And those antibodies earned from fighting off omicron granted extra protection against delta, too, “with Delta neutralisation increasing 4.4-fold.”

Researchers noted that the immune systems of the vaccinated volunteers still mounted a better defense than their unvaccinated peers.

Despite how easily it spreads, health experts including Dr. Anthony Fauci see this coronavirus variant as less severe than delta, as it’s less likely to result in serious illness. But he cautioned that an increase in overall infections could overload hospitals. In Texas, for example, hospitals are being hit hard with staff shortages, the Austin American-Statesman reports.

“We should not become complacent since our hospital system could still be stressed in certain areas of the country,” Fauci said at a Dec. 29 White House briefing.

The study’s researchers are hopeful the rise of omicron may ultimately be a good thing, at least in comparison to delta variant dominance.

“If Omicron does prove to be less pathogenic, then this may show that the course of the pandemic has shifted – Omicron will take over, at least for now, and we may have less disruption of our lives,” lead researcher Alex Sigal said.

The South African study has limitations, including sample size, and the fact that it took place in a controlled lab setting, but it seems sound, Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, told McClatchy News in an email.

“It would be good to see this in the real world with individuals who are infected with omicron and then subsequently tracked to see if they develop Delta, if Delta sticks around,” Adalja said.

Like Sigal, he believes omicron could change the course of the coronavirus pandemic, and might steer the world toward a more manageable scenario.

“I do think that Omicron represents a turning point in the pandemic because of its immune evasive potential and the sheer force of infection that it can produce,” Adalja said. “It may be that this is the biggest (step) the virus takes towards endemicity and becoming a seasonal coronavirus.”

In early December, delta accounted for nearly all new infections in the U.S. But by the end of the month, omicron shifted the scale completely, and was credited with 95% of new COVID-19 cases, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.

People with prior delta infections, or who were “fully vaccinated” with two doses of Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccine, found themselves quite vulnerable to this new viral adversary, McClatchy News reported — though getting a booster shot substantially increases protection against omicron.

This story was originally published January 6, 2022 at 1:01 PM with the headline "Does being infected with the omicron variant protect you against delta? What to know."