“There is no reason” to doubt the protection of vaccines against omicron, says a WHO official

“There is no reason” to doubt the protection provided by vaccines against the new variant coronavirus omicron, which also does not seem to cause a more serious illness, a senior official of the WHO.

“We have very effective vaccines that have proven their power against all variants so far, in terms of disease severity and hospitalization,” World Health Organization emergency director Michael Ryan said in an interview.

“There is no reason to think that this is not the case” in the omicron case, Ryan said, pointing to preliminary data from South Africa, the first country to detect the variant, which “suggests that the vaccine is at least holding up in terms of protection”.

Given the panic generated by the appearance of this variant, with many mutations and apparently more contagious, WHO number two assured that the first studies do not point to a more virulent version of the coronavirus.

“Preliminary data do not indicate that it is more serious. In fact, in any case, the direction is pointing towards less gravity, ”Ryan said, insisting that more research is needed.

“It is very early, we have to be very cautious in how we interpret these signals,” he added.

– Getting vaccinated is “the best weapon” –

Ryan conceded that existing vaccines may lose some effectiveness to omicron, which has more than 30 mutations in the spike protein, which protrudes from the surface of the coronavirus and allows it to invade cells.

But it is “highly unlikely” that it can evade all the protections provided by the vaccine, the 56-year-old epidemiologist stressed.

“We have to confirm if there is any gap in that protection, but I would expect to see the same protection,” he added.

“The preliminary data from South Africa does not imply that we are going to have a catastrophic loss of efficiency. In fact, it’s the opposite for now, “Ryan continued, assuring that” the best weapon we have right now is to get vaccinated. “

Just two weeks after its detection was announced in South Africa on November 24, the omicron variant is found in dozens of countries around the world.

Early data from South Africa indicate that the new variant is more transmissible than previous ones, which is no surprise to Ryan.

“When a new variant appears, it tends to be more transmissible because it has to compete with the previous variants,” he said.

– The same rules –

The Irish doctor predicts that omicron will gradually replace delta, the currently dominant variant, initially detected in India and also more contagious.

But he indicates that, so far, omicron has expanded rapidly especially in South Africa, where the delta variant was in decline, so it could be “exploiting the gap in delta transmission.”

He also indicated that, with the new variant, an infection of people who are vaccinated or have already passed the covid is easier. “There is evidence to suggest that reinfection with omicron is more common than in previous waves or variants,” he said.

But “we are not particularly interested in knowing if you can get reinfected with omicron, but in if a new infection is more or less serious,” he insisted.

In this sense, he pointed out that current vaccines seek to prevent serious disease but not necessarily protect against contagion, so reinfections without symptoms or with mild symptoms were of less concern.

In any case, Ryan pointed out that the new variant is still coronavirus and should be fought with the same measures: vaccines, masks and physical distance.

“The virus has not changed its nature. I may have changed in terms of efficiency, but the game has not changed, “he said.

“The rules of the game are still the same,” he said.

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