Omicron variant cases are mostly “mild”, says EMA

Most cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus in the European Union appear to be “mild,” the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday.

“The cases appear to be mostly mild, but we need to gather more evidence to determine whether the spectrum of disease severity caused by the Omicron is different from that of all of the variants that have circulated so far,” a said Marco Cavaleri, EMA’s head of vaccine strategy, based in Amsterdam.

Pfizer vaccine effective against Omicron variant

The Omicron variant seems to have a higher reinfection rate, for people cured of the disease or vaccinated, but to cause less severe symptoms, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced on Wednesday. Pfizer and BioNTech for their part insisted on the effectiveness of their current vaccine against the Omicron variant.

Our file on Omicron

“At this stage, we do not have enough data on the impact of this variant on the efficacy of approved vaccines, but we are continuously scanning the horizon for results in this regard,” added Marco Cavaleri. The EMA has so far approved four vaccines, two antibody treatments, and given the green light for the emergency use of the pill developed by the Merck laboratory. The EMA also recently announced the launch of the accelerated review of the anti-Covid vaccine by the Franco-Austrian laboratory Valneva, which uses more conventional technology than the vaccines authorized so far in the EU.

A “safe and effective” booster dose

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also said on Thursday that the booster doses could be administered “safely and effectively” just three months after the last injection, whereas so far it had recommended to wait six months.

“While the current recommendation is to give the boosters preferably after six months, the data currently available support the safe and effective administration of a booster dose as early as three months after the end of the primary vaccination course if such a short interval is desirable from a public health point of view, ”said Marco Cavaleri.