Little by little more data are being known about the Omicron variant, the strain that threatens the world after becoming dominant in South Africa in a few weeks. The high transmissibility that is characterizing Ómicron since it appeared on November 24 It has caused the entire scientific community to get down to work to study its behavior and find a way to neutralize it.
In this situation, one of the organizations that has spoken this week is the World Health Organization (WHO). This Tuesday, Michael Ryan, director of emergencies, assured the agency AFP that current vaccines are “very effective” and it has been shown “its power against all variants so far, in terms of severity of illness and hospitalization“, so there is” no reason “to think that with Ómicron the opposite will happen.
Ryan has also pointed out that studies on the new variant are still at too early a stage, having emerged only two weeks ago. However, since that date its presence has already been detected in about 40 countries, so it is spreading rapidly around the world.
“The problem now is Delta”
Hans Kluge, Director of OMS-Europe, also spoke about Ómicron at a press conference, stating that this strain is growing and that they must be “concerned” and “be cautious”. Since its appearance is so recent, there is still a lot of data to collect about it, so it is “too early” to make concrete recommendations. Consequently, the scientific community must “keep a cool head.”
The director of WHO-Europe has wanted to focus attention on the dominant variant in the world for months, Delta, which he compares with Ómicron. “The problem now is Delta and any success against her today is a gain over Omicron for tomorrow“, he says, while insisting that the objective is to stabilize the pandemic and that this It does not imply a specific variant, but “all at once”.
Finally, Kluge has wanted praise South Africa’s performance for its transparency in sharing data on the new variant and has criticized the restrictions that some States have placed on flights from Africa, asking for solidarity from all countries because COVID is “a global problem that can only be solved globally”.
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