The new covid-19 variant, Omicron, can be effectively combated using existing vaccines, according to assurances from the World Health Organization (WHO).
WHO Public Health Emergency Response Officer Michael Ryan assured on Tuesday that "there is no reason to doubt" that current vaccines protect Omicron-infected patients against severe forms of covid-19.
While he did not reveal the vaccine brands with the potential to provide an effective response against the new variant, Ryan said that existing immunizers are "very effective and potent against all variants so far, in terms of disease severity and hospitalization, and there's no reason to believe that won't be the case" with Omicron.
Meanwhile, a study conducted in South Africa, and published this Tuesday, suggests that Omicron appears to decrease the effectiveness of Pfizer's vaccine, but may offer greater protection to those who have had a booster dose.
New work from AHRI's @sigallab strongly suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 #Omicron variant escapes antibody immunity induced by the Pfizer vaccine, but that considerable immunity is retained in people who were both vaccinated & previously infected. https://t.co/AZWi3qexin pic.twitter.com/3phPFyKEPh
- Africa Health Research Institute (@AHRI_News) December 7, 2021
In practice, what the data seem to indicate is that vaccinated people are more vulnerable to infection with Omicron than with another variant.
Ma on the other hand, the Director of the African institute, Willem Hanekom, reiterates that "all vaccination experts agree that the vaccines still protect against severe disease and death compared to Omicron."
The WHO Director-General for Europe, Hans Kluge, on Tuesday called for the mandatory vaccination rule to be used only as a last resort. First it would be important to make the population aware of the importance of receiving the vaccine. Only after all alternatives have been exhausted will it be acceptable to force the vaccine on Europeans.