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WHO Scientist Tells People Not to Panic Over Omicron Though It Can Become the Dominant Variant

2021-12-05 , 11:00 am

The Omicron COVID-19 variant has now spread to over 40 countries and regions across the globe, with community spread in many of those areas.

Some believe it could be more infectious, which is why governments have hurriedly re-imposed border restrictions and precautionary measures hoping to contain its spread.

Given how devastating the Delta strain was, people are naturally alarmed, but the World Health Organisation thinks we should all just chill out.

WHO Scientist Tells People Not to Panic Over Omicron Though It Can Become the Dominant Variant

See, while the Omicron variant has spread quickly, all the cases (so far) have been mild or asymptomatic so far.

What’s more, no deaths from the new variant have been reported so far.

WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan is convinced that the Omicron strain is indeed highly transmissible, which means it could soon become the dominant variant.

But this may not be a bad thing.

“How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we’re in a different situation to a year ago,” she said.

“The fact that they’re not getting sick … that means the vaccines are still providing protection and we would hope that they would continue to provide protection.”

At the moment, the Delta variant accounts for 99% of infections globally. But the Omicron could change that, and soon.

In South Africa, 92% of infections in October were caused by the Delta strain. But just the next month, it was the Omicron variant that became the dominant one, accounting for 74% of cases in the country.

The percentage of severe cases is also lower, which could be due to the higher rate of vaccinations, reduced virulence of the Omicron variant, or both.

Believe it or not, some vaccine manufacturers are already developing a vaccine to target the Omicron variant.

Moderna said it could have a booster shot for the Omicron variant by March next year. BioNTech, Pfizer’s partner, said it too, could tailor its vaccine to ward off the new strain.

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Could the Omicron Variant Speed up the End of the Pandemic?

Since those infected with the Omicron variant present mild or no symptoms, one expert thinks it could speed up the end of the pandemic.

As scientists have been saying, it’s unlikely that the coronavirus will be completely eradicated. Instead, they believe it will evolve into a milder flu-like virus.

Clinical epidemiologist Professor Karl Lauterbach noted that the Omicron variant has 32 mutations on the spike protein alone, – twice as many as Delta – which could mean that while it’s becoming more infectious, it will also become less lethal.

This is how most respiratory viruses evolve, he said.

After the two years of misery that we’ve had, this would certainly be a welcome surprise.

WHO Scientist Tells People Not to Panic Over Omicron Though It Can Become the Dominant Variant

WHO Scientist Tells People Not to Panic Over Omicron Though It Can Become the Dominant Variant

Could the Omicron Variant Speed up the End of the Pandemic?

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