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among Global concerns The new coronavirus strain is one of the hopeful news. People infected with the Omicron mutant appear to have “very mild” symptoms, according to the South African doctor who first discovered the mutant.
Dr. Angelique Kotze Told the BBC Neither she nor her colleagues have ever admitted anyone who was nervous about the hospital. Her patient experienced extreme fatigue, but no loss of taste or odor. This is often an overt symptom of Covid-19.
Early reports are encouraging, according to epidemiologists and other experts.
However, they warned that there was still too little data to draw a conclusion. Their greater concern is how quickly an omicron mutant with a high number of mutations can spread and how it matches the vaccine.
“I don’t think we know anything about pathogenicity. What we are more concerned about is infectivity and the ability to avoid immunity,” said John’s Hopkins, a senior scholar at the Health and Security Center for infectious diseases. Dr. Ameshua Dalha, a doctor, said.
Vaccination remains strong against serious illness, while unvaccinated people who have spontaneous immunity from previous Covid infections may be at greater risk of being re-infected with the virus, Adalja said. He said he thought he would provide protection.
“This can make breakthrough infections or reinfections more common, but serious breakthrough infections are rarely common in healthy people,” he said.
Meanwhile, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Race to decide Find out if those vaccines protect against mutants and how to fine-tune them as needed.
Stephen Morse, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, said that with Omicron mutants, not only the number of mutations, but also the location of the mutations has attracted the attention of researchers. This variant has many spike mutations that have never been seen before.
“Because the antigens we use in vaccines are especially peaplomers, there is always concern that the more mutations we see in pesplomers, the more likely we are to avoid them if the immunity provided by the vaccine is different. “He said. “We really don’t know yet.”
Mutations in variants may also make it more contagious.New infectious diseases in South Africa triple last week.However, only about 35 percent of South African adults are completely Vaccination, Comparison To 70.9 percent of adults in the United States
He is the Director of Bioinformatics at the Center for Pathogen Genomics and Microbial Evolution at the Harvey Global Health Institute and infectious disease medicine at Northwestern University’s Fineberg School of Medicine.
“It may not even be established in other countries,” Lorenzo-Redondo said. “It’s too early to know if this variant will spread. Maybe other factors like higher vaccination will stop it.”
So far, this strain has been detected in South Africa, as well as in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Belgium, and many other countries. Not yet discovered in the United States, the government’s premier infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said on the weekend that he would be “not surprised” if so. Already circulating here.
Why there is no reason to panic
All experts had the same message, even though the unknown and the World Health Organization consider the Omicron strain to be a “variant of concern.” Don’t panic.
“This is what viruses do. They mutate. This is normal,” said Melissa Nolan, assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health. “This is not the last variant of concern. There is much more as long as there are still unvaccinated and vulnerable people.”
According to experts, the same protection methods that worked throughout the pandemic will continue to work, such as wearing a mask and washing hands.
And while not everyone in the world has access to the vaccine, they said that unvaccinated Americans should take advantage of the opportunity to get immunized.
“This is a reminder that if you haven’t been vaccinated, you should,” Nolan said. “If you are fully vaccinated and boosted, you are probably okay.”
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