Corona advisor to President Biden
US expert Fauci: Omikron “almost certainly” no worse than the Delta variant
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks during the daily press briefing at the White House
© Susan Walsh / AP / DPA
According to Anthony Fauci, the top corona advisor to US President Biden, the Omikron variant may not be worse than other variants of the pathogen.
According to US expert Anthony Fauci, the new omicron variant of the corona virus is apparently no worse than other variants of the pathogen. “It is almost certain that it is no worse than Delta,” said the chief medical advisor to US President Joe Biden on Tuesday the AFP news agency.
Fauci: Omikron “clearly highly transferable”
There is some evidence that omicron could be even less severe. In South Africa it was observed that “the ratio between the number of infections and the number of hospital stays is arguably lower than in Delta”. However, fully reliable findings on this are only to be expected in a few weeks.
The omicron variant was discovered by scientists in South Africa at the end of November. Since then it has been found in dozen of countries, including Germany. It has 50 mutations compared to the original virus, 32 of them in the so-called spike protein, with which the coronavirus docks on the host cell. It is therefore feared that this variant is significantly more contagious than previous variants.
Omikron is “clearly highly transferable” and possibly even more contagious than the Delta variant, said Fauci. It is currently being investigated whether the existing corona vaccines are also effective against the new Omikron variant. He expects that the results of these laboratory tests will be available in a week at the latest.