The European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has provided some preliminary information that Omicron could be associated with very high transmissibility, weakening the action of vaccines but not a more serious infection. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has in fact stated that for the moment it is “premature” to predict whether an adaptation of vaccines is necessary for B.1.1.529.
Mutations – So can vaccines be less effective? It is too early to tell, as scientists have repeatedly stated. As it is too early to tell if they may have difficulty preventing infection or even disease. Preliminary data show 32 mutations on the spike protein, which is a kind of hook through which the virus attaches itself to human cells and infects our organism.
The spike protein is also the target of the antibodies produced by vaccines. Omicron it has almost all the mutations of the protein evidenced in the previous variants. It must be said that viruses change continuously and that the mere presence of mutations does not automatically lead to greater contagiousness or danger.
In the scientific journal Nature, the virologist Penny Moore, of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, clarified that it takes about two weeks to understand if and to what extent the new variant is able to escape the antibodies generated by the anti-Covid vaccines. as well as the defenses due to the activation of the T cells of the immune system.
Symptoms and contagiousness – At the moment, in fact, there are very few cases to be analyzed, therefore scientists have not yet understood whether the variant can cause a type of Covid-19 different from the one we know, nor is it actually more contagious. Among the confirmed cases, there are some asymptomatic, exactly as was the case with the previous variants. It is not even known if it can “pierce” the vaccines we currently use.
The South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), the public institute of reference on infectious diseases, wrote that “a partial avoidance of the immune response is likely, but it is equally likely that vaccines will still offer high levels of protection against hospitalization. and death “.
First cases in Europe – Omicron was first reported to WHO from South Africa on 24 November. It circulated in the previous days also in Botswana it’s at Hong Kong. Brought to the Asian country by a traveler who came from South Africa, between 12 and 20 November a group of researchers analyzed 77 samples from people who tested positive in the South African province of Gauteng, which includes Johannesburg and Pretoria. All had variant B.1.1.529. In the following days, a case was reported in Israel (and two other suspects) and one in Belgium, a woman who developed symptoms 11 days after traveling to Egypt via Turkey.
Gilestro at Tgcom24: “Variant grows very fast”
“South Africa also reported that it is growing very fast: it covers 80% of the virus that circulates now in that country. Let’s consider it was zero three weeks ago, “he explained to Tgcom24 Professor Giorgio Gilestro, neurobiologist at Imperial College London.
Diffusion in South Africa – “The graph (you see above, ed) makes a comparison between the diffusion times of the different variants in the African country. – underlined Gilestro – It is difficult to make these comparisons because Delta and Beta have spread in more or less pronounced lockdown situations. Under those conditions, any variant grows less rapidly. Life is much more relaxed today. Beyond this, we know that Delta in South Africa was struggling to catch on also because the country has had so many thinking waves, and on a young population, that it has acquired a sort of immunity that has slowed Delta down a lot. The new variant did not have this difficulty. What does it have more than Delta? Perhaps, it can infect those who have antibodies to the virus “.