Existing coronavirus vaccines are less effective against the omicron strain, Emer Cook, head of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), said in an interview with the Financial Times.

“The data is coming in, it’s not final at all, [but] it’s obvious that there is a decrease in efficiency. We don't know how much, ”explained the head of the EMA.

Earlier, the health ministers of the G7 countries (the "Big Seven" - Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada, France, Japan and the United States) called the new strain of coronavirus the greatest threat to global health. The heads of the G7 Ministries of Health also came to the conclusion that joint work could interrupt the spread of omicron: equal access to diagnostics, virus genome sequencing, vaccines and therapeutic agents.

The new strain COVID-19 B.1.1.529, named omicron, was discovered in November in southern Africa, and has already been identified in more than 60 countries, including Russia. According to experts, it is dangerous because it has "an extremely large number of mutations."

bbabo.Net