A more contagious variant, but not more dangerous, against which vaccines remain effective? It is still too early to be certain, but the first elements seem to indicate that the planet is not experiencing the dreaded catastrophe scenario with Omicron.
“There is no reason to doubt” that the current vaccines protect patients infected with Omicron against severe forms of Covid-19, said on Tuesday, Michael Ryan, the WHO emergency manager, in a report. interview with AFP.
“We have some very effective vaccines that have been shown to be potent against all of the variants so far, in terms of disease severity and hospitalization, and there is no reason to believe that would not be the case.” with Omicron, explained Dr. Ryan, while stressing that we were at the very beginning of the studies of a variant detected only on November 24 and which has since been spotted in about forty countries.
“Encouraging” signals, according to Dr Fauci
According to Michael Ryan, there are also no indications, at this point, that Omicron is causing more severe forms of Covid-19. His words echo those of Dr Anthony Fauci, White House adviser on the health crisis. “Clearly, in South Africa, Omicron is transmitted more,” begins Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House adviser on the health crisis, in an interview with CNN this Sunday, referring to the “vertical” curve of the number of new cases in this country. “But so far, even though it’s too early to draw any firm conclusions, it doesn’t look like it has a high degree of seriousness,” he said. “So far, the signs regarding gravity are a little encouraging,” he repeated.
In the field, several South African hospitals have indicated that many patients positive for the Omicron variant did not appear to have more severe symptoms. But in a very young country, with a median age of 26.4 years, it is not excluded that serious cases will emerge in the coming weeks.