COVID-19 | The WHO does not believe it is necessary to update the vaccine against Ómicron now

The World Health Organization (WHO) will not “immediately” recommend that the flu vaccine COVID-19 be updated to accommodate the new variant Omicron.

“Current vaccines provide very high levels of protection against hospitalization and death against all variants. At this time, explained the executive director of the WHO Emergencies Program, Mike Ryan, at a press conference this Tuesday from Geneva (Switzerland).

For his part, the director general of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has shown his concern that these new vaccine formulas produce a “second phase, even more destructive, of vaccine inequality”.

“We need to ensure that we share current vaccines equitably and develop distributed manufacturing around the world. We can only beat this virus if we work together and share health tools equitably. It really is that simple.” has wielded

The head of the United Nations international health organization has warned that “Ómicron continues to sweep the world”, with more than 18 million cases last week. In any case, it has celebrated that “In some countries the cases seem to have peaked, which allows us to hope that the worst of this latest wave has passed.”

“But no country is yet out of the woods. I remain particularly concerned about many countries with low vaccination rates, as people are at much higher risk of serious illness and death if they are not vaccinated. Omicron may be less severe, on average, of course, but the narrative that it is a mild illness is misleading, harms the overall response, and costs more lives. Make no mistake, Omicron is causing hospitalizations and deaths, and even less serious cases are flooding healthcare facilities. , has insisted.

For this reason, he has urged everyone to “do everything you can to reduce the risk of infection, so that you can help relieve pressure on the system.” “Now is not the time to give up. We can still significantly reduce the impact of the current wave by sharing and effectively using health tools and applying public health and social measures that we know work”, has pointed out.

Regarding vaccines, Tedros has been “proud” that the COVAX Mechanism has delivered its billionth dose. However, he made it clear that “Of course it is not enough and we must do more.”

“In the time of Ómicron, it remains more important than ever to get vaccines to the unvaccinated. Vaccines may be less effective for and Omicron transmission than previous variants, but are still exceptionally good at preventing serious illness and death. This is essential to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed”, has highlighted.