It is a hopeful statement from the WHO and the White House to AFP. The Omicron variant is not more dangerous than Delta, so for now, the vaccines against Covid are effective.
“Current vaccines protect Omicron-infected patients against severe forms of Covid-19”, suggested Michael Ryan, the Head of Emergencies at WHO. “We have very effective vaccines that have been shown to be effective against all variants so far, in terms of severity of disease and hospitalisation, and there is no reason to think that this would not be the case with Omicron, which was discovered in South Africa at the end of November and is causing panic”, he added
Vaccines will protect against Omicron, but they may be weakened by the multiple mutations of Omicron. According to the WHO, it is “almost certain” that Omicron will not cause more severe cases than Delta, but it will be “at least two weeks” before we know whether it is even less dangerous. “There are some signs that it might even be less severe.”
In addition, Dr. Fauci drew attention to the fact that Omicron is “clearly highly transmissible“, probably more so than the Delta variant.
