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How do Vaccines Work?

Over the course of 2020, the world watched with bated breath as biotechnology companies—in less than one full year—developed, tested, and released vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

In some ways, these vaccines upended the paradigm of vaccines that came before; they were deployed on a faster timeline and it was the first time mRNA vaccines were used and mass-produced. But the science behind all COVID-19 vaccines rests on decades of research on infectious diseases, the human immune system, and vaccination.

Mini-Livers on a Chip

A vaccine for hepatitis C has eluded scientists for more than 30 years, for several reasons. For one, the virus that causes the disease comes in many genetic forms, complicating the creation of a widely effective vaccine. For another, studying hepatitis C has been difficult because options in animals are limited and lab methods using infected cells have not adequately reflected the real-life dynamics of infection.

Do you need a 4th dose of a COVID-19 vaccine? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer

In clinical trials, multiple leading COVID-19 vaccines were tested as a two-shot regimen. In the real world, three doses have proven to offer strong protection against serious illness. And now, in multiple countries, fourth doses are being explored as a way to ward off waning immunity.

So does that mean you should rush out and get another shot if the opportunity arises? Not necessarily.

The human immune system is a broad, multi-faceted defence network. It starts off rather immature in your infancy, typically sharpens as you age, and tends to struggle more to fight off pathogens in your golden years.

When Will This Pandemic End?

As the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 continues to sweep through Europe and moves into the Middle East and Latin America, a new variant of Omicron, known as BA.2, is running up case counts in several nations. Denmark has been particularly hard hit with BA.2, which now accounts for over half of all infections in the country. In the United States, hospitalizations remain at high levels even as COVID-19 cases are declining in many of the communities that were hardest-hit by the virus earlier in the pandemic, allowing the San Francisco Bay Area, for example, to relax certain mandates.

Where is this pandemic taking us next?

Why an Omicron infection along might not offer the immune boost you’d expect

In the span of just weeks, millions of Canadians became infected with SARS-CoV-2. Globally, more cases were reported in the first 10 weeks after the Omicron variant was identified than in all of 2020.

It was a mass infection event quite unlike anything we’d seen in the pandemic to date, hitting both the unvaccinated and vaccinated — but not in the same way.

While vaccinated and boosted individuals largely avoid dire outcomes from COVID-19, data continues to show that unvaccinated individuals remain at a far higher risk of serious illness, hospitalization, and death.

Should We Go All In on Omicron Vaccines?

Two years into the pandemic, and two months into Omicron’s globe-crushing surge, our COVID-19 vaccines are finally on the cusp of a federally sanctioned update. To counter the new variant’s uncanny knack for slipping past antibodies roused by our first-generation shots, Moderna and Pfizer have both kick-started clinical trials to see how Omicron-specific vaccines fare in people. Results are expected within the next few months, and if all goes well, syringes around the world could be locked and loaded with Omicron’s wonky-looking spike protein by the summer.

Omicron-izing our COVID vaccines is a good, if unfortunately timed, move, experts told me. But the same strangeness that makes an Omicron-specific vaccine wise is also a warning against trashing our original-recipe shots too soon. We don’t know what the next major variant will look like. It could be an offshoot of Omicron, something that strongly mirrors the ancestral SARS-CoV-2, or something that resembles neither variant at all.

What You Should Know About Omicron

In late November 2021, scientists reported the emergence of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. In a matter of weeks, the variant, dubbed Omicron, spread around the globe.

Today, the Omicron variant accounts for about 98 percent of all COVID-19 cases in the United States, and case counts and hospitalizations are spiking at all-time highs in many places. At the same time, recommendations are constantly shifting about how to prevent COVID-19, and when to isolate or quarantine. Across both social media and mainstream media outlets, conflicting opinions are being raised about what Omicron means for the future of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This week, three virologists at Gladstone Institutes—Warner Greene, MD, PhD, director of the Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research; Melanie Ott, MD, PhD, director of the Gladstone Institute of Virology; and Nadia Roan, PhD, associate investigator—discussed what people should know about Omicron, home testing, and more.

What to Expect in 2022

Warner Greene, MD, PhD
Director, Michael Hulton Center for HIV Cure Research, Gladstone Institutes
Melanie Ott, MD, PhD
Director, Gladstone Institute of Virology
Moderator: Deepak Srivastava, MD
President, Gladstone Institutes

You wore a mask. You sheltered in place and avoided travel. You got the vaccine. You thought we would soon be on the other side of the pandemic. Then the Delta variant came, and now Omicron.

You, like many others, are starting to wonder, “When will this all be over?”

Gladstone virologists discuss what we know about Omicron and what we might expect in 2022.

Bay Area scientists rush to study local omicron virus samples for health clues

Finding the omicron coronavirus variant in San Francisco on Wednesday may have caused concern among the general public, but to the Bay Area scientists eager to study the highly mutated virus and understand the threat it may pose, having a sample in their backyard was a stroke of luck.

In the mad global dash to study omicron, getting copies of the variant to analyze in U.S. labs has been a challenge. Some Bay Area scientists said they’ve been on waiting lists for at least a week — since Thanksgiving, when the variant was first reported out of South Africa.