WHO finally releases positive Omicron news
Top scientists at the World Health Organisation (WHO) have provided a positive update about the severity of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, but caution that more research is needed.
The organisation's second-in-command said the new variant seems to be no worse than any other strain according to “preliminary data”.
“In fact, if anything, the direction is towards less severity,” WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan said in an interview, though he stressed that more research was needed to confirm the findings.
Mr Ryan also said it was “highly unlikely” that existing Covid vaccines would be completely ineffective against Omicron.
“We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation … There’s no reason to expect that it wouldn’t be so [for Omicron]," he added.
However, he acknowledged that it was possible that current vaccines could be less effective against Omicron.
The update comes as lab tests of the new variant in South Africa suggest it could partially evade the Pfizer vaccine.
The South African study - which is yet to be published or peer-reviewed - suggests that the Pfizer vaccine isn’t fully effective against the Omicron variant, finding that the vaccine may have fewer antibodies that can neutralise the new strain.
Professor Alex Sigal, a virologist at the Africa Health Research Institute and the study’s leader, said Omicron’s ability to evade the vaccine antibodies is “incomplete”, the BBC reported.
Professor Penny Ward, a visiting Professor at King’s College London, said that the findings are unsurprising, given the large number of mutations found in the Omicron strain.
Despite the decreased effectiveness, Professor Sigal said that vaccination, combined with previous infection, could still protect individuals from severe symptoms. This also suggests that boosters could be of significant benefit.
However, more work will be needed to confirm these findings, due to the study’s small sample size of only 12 patients.
More data on the effectiveness of the vaccine against Omicron is expected to be released in the coming days.
No significant data has been released confirming the effectiveness of the Moderna, AstraZeneca, or other vaccines against the variant.
Image: Getty Images