It was in last month that Omicron, a new variant of Covid was detected in South Africa. The arrival of the Omicron variant resulted in a surge in fresh cases in South Africa, and according to the latest updates, this new variant of Covid is present in more than 80 countries. And now, a growing body of preliminary research has suggested that most Covid vaccines offer no protection against the Omicron variant of the pandemic.
Vaccines not capable of stopping infections
The study suggests that only the Pfizer and Moderna shots, when reinforced by a booster appear to have the capability of stopping infections. Unfortunately, these vaccines are not available in most of the world.
It should be noted that most of the countries are carrying out their vaccination rollout programs using the jabs developed by AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson, and vaccines manufactured in China and Russia. These vaccines are not capable to stop Omicron infections which is undoubtedly a matter of concern.
However, all the Covid vaccines still seem to provide a significant degree of protection in reducing the severity of infection.
The hope of a silver lining
Meanwhile, research reports also suggest that the Omicron variant is not as lethal as the Delta variant, but it is expected to be more transmissible.
"What you lose first is protection against asymptomatic mild infection, what you retain much better is protection against severe disease and death," said John Moore, a virus expert at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
Calling it a silver lining, Moore makes it clear that the Omicron variant will not result in severe infections when compared to the Delta variant of Covid.
However, J. Stephen Morrison, director of the Global Health Policy Center at the Center for International and Strategic Studies believes that the Omicron variant is capable enough to cause worldwide chaos.
"The sheer scale of infection will overwhelm health systems, simply because the denominator will be potentially so big. If you have a burst of infection worldwide, a shock, what does the world look like on other side of it? Is it, 'The war is over,' or, 'The war has just entered another phase'? We haven't begun thinking about any of that," said Morrison.
