The new variant of the coronavirus, dubbed the Omicron, may require a reassessment and modification of the vaccines currently available to increase their degree of protection, according to infectologist Raquel Muarrek. In an interview with CNN, she stated, however, that it is still not possible to know the degree of severity or mortality of the new strain.
“[As vacinas] they will have to be evaluated from the point of view of the immune and sustained response for the strains that appear”, says the doctor. She recalls, however, that all vaccines currently available already have technology that allows adaptation to new variants, which is what happens annually with the vaccine from gripe, for example.
“All will have to be modified or adapted to each period or each degree of severe mutation”, he says. According to her, it is not yet possible to know how serious the Ômicron variant is, to demand or not a change in immunization agents.
The process of analyzing the new degree of severity due to mutations still “will come with time”. “What we have is that these are mild signs, and it is showing adaptation and infection, so there is an increase in transmission, we already know about this strain, if it is severe or if it has mortality, this is only with time”, claims.
According to the infectologist, what makes Ômicron a variant of concern is its high number of mutations. About 50 have already been identified, with 32 only in the Spike protein, linked to virus transmission. “They can only intervene at entry, having mild symptoms, or it can reduce the vaccine response. It is a variant of concern due to the amount of response she makes to enter and present the painting”.
She claims that, even in a framework of mild cases, the high transmissibility of the variant would increase the chance of people more vulnerable to the virus contracting the disease and having a severe condition, and therefore protective measures for these groups are even more necessary.
The infectologist says that the emergence of new mutations is “inevitable” as the coronavirus tries to adapt to find the best way to survive in human organisms.
For her, “while there are still cases with sustained community transmission, as there were in Africa and we still have in our country, this variant, or any variant, undergoes its mutations, adapting and entering human beings again”.
With that, she considers that the most important thing in combating the Ômicron variant and other possible strains is the correct treatment against Covid-19 and a vaccination “just in case”. Muarrek considers that an ideal number for the vaccinated population would be 85% to 90% of the population, a rate still far from the current one.
“At the moment, it is not ideal to remove the masks, because we still have community-based sustained transmission and this is still going to lead this virus to adapt and still have high transmission foci”, he says.
Another measure that Muarrek considers important to contain the transmission of the coronavirus is the requirement for vaccination passport for people trying to enter Brazil. “Our country also has to protect itself, demanding a vaccine card for the population abroad is something that already exists for us anywhere in the world, it is something necessary to protect against transmission within our country.”
Reference: CNN Brasil
