Biologist Baranova: vaccines may lose their effectiveness when the delta is displaced by the omicron will have to create a new vaccine, because modern drugs will lose their effectiveness. This was stated by Doctor of Biological Sciences, Professor of the School of Systems Biology at George Mason University (Virginia, USA) Ancha Baranova in an interview with Lente.ru.
With this development of events, the biologist called the fact that that the established treatment regimens for COVID-19 will still work, since omicron mutations do not affect them.
But first, you need to track how the omicron strain will behave in European populations, Baranova said. “It's just that while all those people who got sick in South Africa are young. There is such a structure of the population. It is difficult to imagine a real picture on it, there were no elderly people. That's when the data from Europe comes, then we'll find out, “the professor explained.
Earlier, Baranova was worried about the contactless transmission of a new omicron strain of coronavirus. According to her, this may indicate a high ability to spread this variation of the infection.
The newest strain COVID-19 B.1.1.529 was identified in South Africa, it was assigned the Greek letter “omicron” (O). Experts from the World Health Organization have recognized it as a threat. According to the WHO, it may affect more people in the world, including those who have recovered from other strains, and existing vaccines may not be effective.