On 24 November 2021, the world, especially South Africa, woke up with a new Covid-19 surge in the form of “Omicron”, the new variant of Covid-19. The Medical experts from The World Health Organization classified this variant as the ” variant of concern”.
Vaccination Might Be Less Effective To New Covid-19 Variant “Omicron”
Dr. Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who warns the health officials about this variant says that the symptoms of the Omicron variant may be unusual but mild. She has come to know about this virus through her patient who has come to visit her earlier this month with some Covid-19 mild symptoms.
As per her, the symptoms of the Omicron variant are very mild and those who are affected by this variant are not hospitalized and taking medications and treatment at home only. There is no loss of taste or smell but you might feel extreme body pain.
Dr. Anthony Fauci who have President Joe Biden on 29 November briefed him about the current situation on the Omicron variant of Covid 19. He said that according to the number of cases and studies published, it is not favorable to determine the condition and we need at least two-three weeks to understand this variant.
With these numbers and data, jumping to a conclusion is not a good option. He also said that the severity of this variant is unknown till now but with 50 mutants the spread of this variant will be quick and chances are high that the vaccine becomes ineffective if the outbreak will be too fast.
In the United States, approximately 47 million adults are unvaccinated and more than 90 percent of the hospitalization cases are from the unvaccinated population.
As per the head of drugmaker Moderna vaccine, Covid-19 vaccines are less effective against the new variant Omicron. This variant has a high number of mutations on the protein spike which is used to infect the human cells. That’s why the current vaccine might need to be modified and experts say that it will take approximately one month to optimize the current Covid-19 vaccination
The US CDC is urging all eligible adults to receive their booster shots as it will help in building the immune system stronger to fight the new covid 19 Omicron variant.
Most health officials are concerned about how quickly this new variant with the highest number of mutations will spread in the world and how it will match up against the vaccinations.
Meanwhile, the drug companies like Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are racing to see whether their vaccination shots will provide enough protection against the new variant and also exploring ways to tweak them.
Pfizer has asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize the use of its Antiviral pill Paxlovid for the treatment against this new variant as their pills have shown promising results by reducing the hospitalization and death rate by 80 percent during the trial phase.
