“Virtually all the cases that we see in South Africa at the moment are omicron,” he added.
“The second – he continued – about which we have data are reinfections: a person who has had covid-19 has around 1% chance, or perhaps even less than 1%, of being infected again.”
“Finally, the only data we have so far suggests that the variant may manifest itself more in younger people and especially in unvaccinated youth and, in general, for the moment it has seemed milder,” he said.
Watch out
However, the expert was cautious, because it is the first indication. “Again, I want to say that we must be careful: these are the first days” of circulation of the variant, he emphasized.
There are also other problems. Some omicron mutations also change their way of attaching to receptors on human cells, according to the bioinformatic models of the virologist Javier Jaimes. The effects of this novelty are still an enigma.
An international team of scientists coordinated by the National Institute for Infectious Diseases in South Africa calculated that omicron is expanding at twice the speed of the already supercontagious delta variant.
The explanation could be a greater transmissibility, by a better penetration in human cells or a greater ability to dribble to the antibodies and re-infect. Or maybe both.
According to specialists, the unusual accumulation of mutations in omicron could completely change the behavior of the virus, but everything is still under study.
Definition
Meanwhile, Fauci pointed out that “although it is too early to make definitive assertions, so far it does not seem that there is a great degree of gravity.”
“So far, the signs are somewhat encouraging,” he stressed in statements to CNN.
“There is a real risk that we will see a decrease in the effectiveness of vaccines,” Stephen Hoge, president of the vaccine manufacturer Moderna, told ABC channel.
Moderna and other pharmaceutical companies, such as Pfizer-BioNTech, Johnson & Johnson and Gamaleya, among others, have already started working to adapt their vaccines to the new variant, a process that would take at least three months.
At least 15 US states and about 40 countries have confirmed cases of the omicron variant.
The United States last week imposed entry restrictions for people from South Africa and seven other southern countries to curb infections.
Fauci said Sunday that he expects those restrictions to be lifted “within a reasonable period.”
Source From: Ambito
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