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What is the Omicron variant?

This new iteration of the coronavirus, first identified in Botswana and South Africa, has caused concern among scientists and public health officials due to the unusually high number of mutations that have the potential to make the virus more contagious and less susceptible to current vaccines.

The World Health Organization describes Omicron as “anxiety variant” and on Monday warned He said the global risks it poses were “very high”, although officials described it as a lot of uncertainty. Cases have been detected in more than a dozen countries, including the UK, Italy, Belgium and the Netherlands. While Omicron has yet to be detected in the United States, experts say it’s only a matter of time before the variant emerges.

Should we be worried?

Omicron’s discovery has sparked significant worldwide panic, as a number of countries ban flights from southern Africa or ban foreign travelers outright, such as Israel, Japan and Morocco.

But public health experts cautioned to be cautious, noting that there is as yet no conclusive evidence that Omicron is more dangerous than previous variants such as Delta, which has quickly outstripped its predecessors in the United States and other countries.

While Delta has turned out to be much more contagious than previous variants – and there is some data suggesting it can cause more serious illness in unvaccinated people – there is little evidence that it is more lethal or capable of defeating vaccines.

Much is unknown about Omicron, including whether it is more contagious and causes more serious illness. There is some evidence that the variant can reinfect people more easily.

There are early signs that Omicron may only cause mild illness. But this observation was mainly based on cases among South Africa’s youth, who were generally less likely to become seriously ill from Covid.

President of the South African Medical Association, Dr. Angelique Coetzee said hospitals in the country are not overwhelmed by patients infected with the new variant, and many of those hospitalized are not fully vaccinated. Moreover, most of the patients he saw did not lose their sense of taste and smell and only had a mild cough.

Tuesday, Regeneron said Covid antibody treatment It may be less effective against Omicron, which popular and widely useful monoclonal antibody drugs it may need to be updated if the new variant spreads aggressively.

However, the emergence of Omicron is so new that it may take some time for experts to figure out whether it is more pathogenic. Covid hospitalizations delay new infections for two weeks or more.

Scientists expect to learn much more in the coming weeks. At this time, they say there is no reason to believe that Omicron is unaffected by current vaccines, although they appear to be less protective to an unknown degree.

There’s another reason to stay calm: Vaccine manufacturers have expressed confidence that they can modify existing formulations to make vaccines more effective against new variants.

Also reassuring: Omicron’s unique mutations make it easy to quickly identify with a nasal swab and lab test.

Why are scientists so worried about Omicron?

As the coronavirus multiplies inside humans, new mutations are constantly emerging. Most do not give the virus a new advantage, but sometimes mutations can give the pathogen support, either by making the pathogen spread more easily among human hosts or by circumventing the body’s immune response.

Researchers in South Africa were alarmed because they found more than 30 mutations in spike protein, a component on the surface of the variant that allows it to bind to human cells and enter the body. Some samples from Botswana shared about 50 mutations throughout the virus that were not previously found in combination.

The spike protein is the primary target of antibodies produced by the immune system to fight a Covid-19 infection. Having so many mutations raises concerns that Omicron’s spike may somehow escape antibodies produced by previous infection or vaccination.

These mutations also raise the possibility that the variant will reduce the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody treatments – this fear was partially confirmed by Regeneron’s announcement on Tuesday.

Still, it’s worth remembering the fate of previous variants of concern: Beta and Mu, for example, have developed the ability to partially evade the body’s immune defenses, but have never been a serious threat to the world because they have proven weak. to forward.

What about vaccines?

Vaccines are expected to offer some protection against Omicron, as they stimulate not only antibodies but also other immune cells that attack virus-infected cells. Mutations in the spike protein do not blunt this response, which most experts believe is effective in preventing serious illness and death.

Some healthcare professionals are promoting booster vaccines to increase antibody levels, citing the potential for weakened immunity six months or more after vaccination.

Moderna, Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson, manufacturers of vaccines approved for use in the United States, and AstraZeneca, which is widely used in Europe, stated that they are working on Omicron and are confident in its ability to adapt their formulations. to target the variant.

Why is it called Omicron?

When WHO began naming emerging variants of the coronavirus, Greek alphabet — Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and so on — to facilitate their identification. The first “worrying variant”, Alpha, was identified in the UK in late 2020, followed soon after by Beta in South Africa.

But veterans of American sorority and sorority life may have noticed that the system skipped the next two letters in alphabetical order: Nu and Xi.

Officials thought Nu would be confused too easily with “new,” but the next letter, Xi, is a bit more complicated. WHO officials said it is a common surname and therefore potentially confusing. Some noted that it was also the name of China’s top leader, Xi Jinping.

A spokesperson for the WHO said the organization’s policy was designed to avoid “causing attack on any cultural, social, national, regional, professional or ethnic group”.

Next? Omicron. (Request How to pronounce.)

I’m fully vaccinated – even got my booster. So why should I care about Omicron?

The rise of another worrisome variant in the developing world, such as Delta first identified in India, points to a more fundamental problem facing the global community for more than a year and a half of the pandemic.

Accumulating vaccines by rich countries while poorer countries struggle to obtain them provides more opportunities for SARS CoV-2 to replicate and mutate among the unvaccinated. More mutations mean there are more chances for the virus to become more contagious, immune-resistant, or deadly.

And as the rapid spread of Delta shows, a dangerous new variant is unlikely to stay in one place for very long.

The risks go beyond public health. The economic devastation from a new variant could hit wealthy countries almost as hard as those in the developing world. A academic studIt is estimated that trillions of dollars in economic loss will be incurred in rich countries when those living in poorer countries remain largely unvaccinated.

Recently, the string of travel restrictions sparked by the emergence of Omicron triggered resentment among AfricansThose who believe that the continent is once again burdened by the panic policies of Western countries that fail to provide vaccines and the resources needed to administer them.

On Tuesday, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus described the travel bans as follows: unfair and adverse. “I understand well the concern of protecting citizens of all countries against a variable we don’t fully understand yet,” he said.

But I am equally concerned that several member states have introduced clear, comprehensive measures that are not evidence-based or ineffective on their own and will only exacerbate inequalities.”