The head of drugmaker Moderna said Covid-19 vaccines are likely not as effective against the Ômicron variant of the coronavirus, raising new concerns in financial markets about the pandemic’s trajectory.
“I think there is no world where efficiency is on the same level as we had with Delta,” Moderna’s chief executive, Stéphane Bancel, told the Financial Times in an interview.
“I think there will be a fall. I just don’t know how much, because we have to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to are like ‘this isn’t going to be good.’”
Vaccine resistance could lead to more infections and hospitalizations and prolong the pandemic, and Bancel’s comments sparked the sale of assets in the world’s stock balls, such as oil and the dollar.
Bancel added that the high number of mutations in the peak protein the virus uses to infect human cells means it is likely that the current crop of vaccines will need to be modified.
He had previously told CNBC that it could take months to start distributing a vaccine that works against Omicron.
The fear of the new variant, despite the lack of information about its seriousness, has already led to delays in some economic reopening plans and the reimposition of some travel and movement restrictions.
Reference: CNN Brasil
