American Coronavirus: Omicron Concerns Should Prompt Millions of Unvaccinated Americans to Get Vaccinated Against Covid, Experts Say

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“I hope that within a week or two, so many of these people will benefit from the vaccine,” Dr. William Schaffner, professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota on Friday. “This will help us right away. And I predict that, as bad as Omicron may be, our vaccine will always be partially effective.”

Dr Anthony Fauci echoed this, highlighting vaccinations and boosters as effective mitigation tools.

“I say this absolutely clear, that if there was a reason for unvaccinated people to get vaccinated and for those who were vaccinated when your time comes to go for a booster,” Fauci told NBC News Friday.

“The booster shots give you a very, very important benefit,” he said, noting that the boosters increase the level of antibodies that protect against the virus.

Data the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 196 million Americans, or 59% of the U.S. population, were fully immunized on Friday. An additional 37.5 million received booster shots, the data shows.
After a pandemic that lasted for nearly two years, experts and world leaders are worried about the impact of the Omicron variant, and many countries have issued travel bans. Besides South Africa, the newly identified variant has been detected in Botswana, Hong Kong, Belgium, Germany, Italy and the Czech Republic.
Two variant cases have also been detected in the UK, Secretary of State for Health Sajid Javid said on Saturday, prompting UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson to announce a series of “targeted” measures to tackle the variant.
The United States on Friday decided to restrict travel from eight countries mainly in southern Africa from Monday, as the World Health Organization considered Omicron, first detected in South Africa, a worrying variant. Travel to the United States will be limited for those entering from Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique, Malawi and South Africa.

Fauci: “Wouldn’t be surprised” if the variant is already in the US

Omicron has raised concerns with health officials because it is possible that it is more contagious than the original new strain of coronavirus, the WHO said, and also carries a significant number of mutations.

No case of the variant has been identified in the United States, the CDC said in a statement on Friday, adding that the agency is working with health officials in the United States and around the world to find out more.

The CDC continues to monitor variants, the agency’s statement said on Friday. “We expect Omicron to be identified quickly, if it emerges in the United States.”

On Saturday morning, however, Fauci told NBC he “wouldn’t be surprised” if the variant was already in the United States.

What we know about the Omicron variant

“We haven’t detected it yet,” he said, “but when you have a virus that shows that level of transmissibility, and you have travel-related cases that they’ve already noted in other places, when you have a virus like that, it’s almost invariably going to go everywhere. “

Dr Peter Hotez, professor and dean of tropical medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, agreed, telling CNN’s Jim Acosta in an interview on Saturday, “Yes, it’s probably here.”

Hotez has indicated that more will be known in the next week or two. In the meantime, it was important to keep things in perspective, he said, including the fact “we haven’t seen any evidence that Omicron produces disease more severe than any of the other variants.”

“In terms of whether or not this variant will resist the immune response to our current vaccines: it is possible, but it is unlikely to be fully resistant,” he said. It could be “partially resistant”, he added, like other variants which “never really took off, even though they had many worrisome mutations in the spike protein.”

“The most important thing we really need to know right now is how transferable this variant is,” he said, and whether it is “enough to compete with” the Delta variant.

“In a week, if we have this discussion, we’ll have a lot more information,” Hotez said.

Vaccine makers work to determine efficacy against Omicron

Vaccine makers have said they are taking action to deal with the emergence of a new variant.

Moderna is working quickly to test its vaccine’s ability to neutralize Omicron, the company said on Friday, and data is expected in the coming weeks.

The strain includes mutations “seen in the Delta variant which are believed to increase transmissibility and mutations seen in the Beta and Delta variants which are believed to promote immune evasion,” Moderna said in a press release.

“The combination of mutations represents an important potential risk to accelerate the decline of natural and vaccine-induced immunity.”

If its current vaccine and booster are insufficient against the variant, Moderna explained that one possible solution is to stimulate people with a larger dose, which the company is testing.

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The company is also evaluating two multivalent booster candidates to see if they provide better protection against Omicron, both of which include some of the viral mutations present in the variant. Moderna said he is also testing a booster specific to Omicron.

“For several days, we have been moving as quickly as possible to execute our strategy to fight this variant,” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in the statement.

Scientists at BioNTech, the German company that has partnered with Pfizer to make its Covid-19 vaccine, are also studying the impact of the variant on their shot, with data expected in the coming weeks.

A spokesperson for Johnson & Johnson told CNN in a statement that the company is also testing the effectiveness of its vaccine against Omicron.

Scientists are working on Covid-19 at the Center for Epidemic Response and Innovation in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Covid-19 travel restrictions not so effective, experts say

The Biden administration’s decision to restrict travel from eight countries is a precautionary measure as the US government learns more about the Omicron variant of the coronavirus.

But some experts say travel restrictions aren’t as effective as they seem.

“Travel bans are modestly effective. They can obviously influence travel directly from this country to the United States,” said Schaffner, a physician at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Travel doors slam as new Covid variant sounds alarm, blocking hundreds of passengers

“But obviously American citizens will be allowed to return. They could bring the virus. And people could leave the country of interest, South Africa for example, and go to other countries that are not prohibited. , and come in, if you will, through the side door, so the travel bans are somewhat effective, but let’s not expect a miracle, ”he said.

U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and non-citizens who are spouses of citizens or permanent residents are exempt from the new restrictions.

Dr Megan Ranney, professor of emergency medicine and associate dean of public health at Brown University, said universal vaccination requirements for all air travel would be more effective.

“Or having quarantines when people arrive in the United States from other countries. Neither is particularly politically acceptable at the moment, but they would make a much bigger difference in the spread of this variant, ”Ranney told CNN’s Jim Acosta on Friday.

CNN’s Jacqueline Howard, Virginia Langmaid, Michael Nedelman, Frederik Pleitgen and Kaitlan Collins contributed to this report.

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