Durability of Booster mRNA Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5 Subvariants
Panke Qu, Julia N. Faraone, John P. Evans, Yi-Min Zheng, Lianbo Yu, Qin Ma, Claire Carlin, Gerard Lozanski, Linda J. Saif, Eugene M. Oltz, Richard J. Gumina, Shan‐Lu Liu
Abstract
To the Editor: Mounting concern about the long-term efficacy of messenger RNA (mRNA) booster vaccines against coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) 1 has been exacerbated by the recent emergence of the B.1.1.529 (omicron) subvariants BA.2.12.1 and BA.4 and BA.5 (hereafter, BA.4/5) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which have high degrees of immune escape. 2 To address this concern, we used our previously reported pseudotyped lentivirus neutralization assay (see the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this letter at NEJM.org) to examine neutralizing-antibody titers against major SARS-CoV-2 variants in a longitudinal cohort of health care workers from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus who had received homologous vaccine and booster doses of an mRNA vaccine. A total of 24 participants received the mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna), and 22 received the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech). We classified participant samples into three groups according to the timing of booster-dose administration: 1 to 3 months, 4 to 6 months, and 7 to 9 months before the sample was obtained (Table Over the course of the study, 14 participants had a breakthrough infection; 9 cases occurred during the omicron waves.