If you are unvaccinated, get your shot, they said. Vaccines are safe, highly effective and one of the most important ways to protect people from severe COVID outcomes. Saad Omer, an epidemiologist who directs the Yale Institute for Global Health, said, “Even if we find out there’s lower efficacy, we’re unlikely to find out that there’s no efficacy.” Viruses mutate in order to infect more hosts and survive, and early reports out of South Africa suggest that this variant may have sickened vaccinated people. The tools that have reduced new infections, hospitalizations and death across the pandemic remain our best protection, epidemiologists, virologists and public health experts told the PBS NewsHour. We are far from powerless against the virus, experts have reminded us in recent days.
“We can’t lose all hope right now,” Jetelina said. Katelyn Jetelina, an assistant professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and author of the blog, Your Local Epidemiologist.īut the main message that experts like Jetelina and Fauci want the public to hear is more optimistic. The type and combination of mutations found on omicron concerns epidemiologists like Dr. Amanda McClelland, who is an expert in international public health management with the global health initiative Resolve to Save Lives, says she expects answers will come into focus over the next 10 days as scientists closely map omicron’s evolution. Key questions need to be answered about the new variant, including whether it is more transmissible, produces more severe disease, and responds to vaccines and medicines. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to the White House, who told the PBS NewsHour’s anchor and managing editor Judy Woodruff on Monday that he “really would be surprised if we didn’t ultimately have it here in this country.”
This case was inevitable, many public health experts have said in recent days, including Dr. Their close contacts have tested negative, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That person developed mild symptoms, tested positive and self-quarantined. On Wednesday, health officials in California said they had identified one fully vaccinated person who was sick with the variant and had returned to the U.S. The WHO said this variant potentially carries an “ increased risk of reinfection” and has been found in a handful of countries. and around the world, had fewer than a dozen such mutations. For comparison, the delta variant, which still makes up the vast majority of known new infections in the U.S.
26, appears to have more than 30 mutations on its spike protein, the virus’ signature feature that helps it infect human hosts. What do we know so far? Omicron, which the World Health Organization designated as a variant of concern Nov. The emergence of omicron has raised a slew of questions about how this variant will behave and what it means for the future of the pandemic for people across the globe, along with pure logistical questions about public health protocols, our holiday plans and daily lives. Public health experts warned it could happen for months, but for many, that hasn’t made the news of the latest COVID variant any easier.