Russia (bbabo.net), - Scientists warn that the rapid advance of the "omicron" variant all but guarantees that this is not the last version of the coronavirus that is troubling the world. Experts do not specify what the next options will look like or how they could affect the pandemic. However, they say there is no guarantee that they will cause milder illness or that existing vaccines will work against them. Experts call for wider vaccination while current vaccines still work.
"The faster the omicron spreads, the more opportunities there are for mutations, which could lead to more new variants," Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University, told The Associated Press. Studies show that this variant is at least twice as infectious as the delta strain and at least four times more infectious than the original version of the virus. Omicron is more likely than the delta variant to reinfect people who previously had COVID-19 and cause "breakthrough infections" in vaccinated people, as well as attack unvaccinated people, experts say. The World Health Organization reported a record 15 million new COVID-19 cases in the week of January 3-9, up 55 percent from the previous week.
The ease with which the omicron variant spreads increases the likelihood that the virus will survive inside people with weakened immune systems, giving it more time to develop powerful mutations. "The most likely breeding ground for new variants are longer-lasting, persistent infections," said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.
The improved ability to evade immunity helps the coronavirus survive for a long time. There are many possible directions of evolution in the development of mutations. Domestic dogs and cats raised on a mink farm are just some of the animals vulnerable to the virus, which could potentially mutate inside them and return to humans. Another potential avenue is that when both "micron" and "delta" variants circulate, humans could get a double infection that could produce what Ray calls "Franken variants," hybrids with characteristics of both types. Omicron has many more mutations than previous variants, about 30 in a spike protein that allows it to attach to human cells, the scientists said. But the so-called IHU variant, identified in France and under the supervision of WHO, has 46 mutations, the AP notes.
To contain the emergence of new options, scientists highlight the need to continue public health measures such as masks and vaccinations. Although the Omicron variant is better able to evade immunity than the Delta variant, the vaccines still provide protection against it, and booster shots significantly reduce serious illness, hospitalizations and deaths, experts say.
Experts say the virus won't become endemic like the flu while global vaccination rates are this low. During a recent press conference, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said protecting people from future options, including those that could be completely resistant to today's vaccines, depends on closing the global vaccine disparity. According to Johns Hopkins University statistics, there are now dozens of countries where less than a quarter of the population is fully vaccinated. "These huge unvaccinated populations in the US, Africa, Asia, Latin America and elsewhere are basically factories for producing new variants," concluded Dr. Prabhat Jha of the Center for Global Health Research in Toronto.
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