Chairman of the World Health Organization Tedros Adhanum (Photo: Alexandros Michalidis / Shatterstock)
Significant reassurance: Against the background of the global panic surrounding the new corona variant, the World Health Organization said today (Wednesday) that there will probably be no need to develop a new vaccine against Omicron. However, the organization has made it clear that changes may need to be made to the existing corona vaccine to be effective against the South African strain.
In their words, health organization experts have further recommended that older people who are not fully vaccinated now avoid non-essential travel, especially when it comes to travel abroad. According to them, “this is a variant with global risk potential, which has so far been discovered in 24 countries.”
Earlier this week, Pfizer CEO Albert Burla commented on the possibility of developing an effective vaccine against Omicron, saying that the pharmaceutical company is still examining the effectiveness of the existing vaccine against the variant – but it is estimated that the vaccine still provides protection against serious illness.
“Already in the development of vaccines and drugs, we took into account that there will be new variants to be developed in the future. It remains to be seen how effective the vaccines are against Omicron, but I think the existing vaccine will still provide some protection – even if it is less effective than other variants,” said Burla. “This means that we will not have to develop a completely new vaccine, but we will be able to build on the existing vaccine – and as a result, I estimate that we will be able to develop a new vaccine that will be effective against Omicran within 100 days.”
“From the first moment we were accurate in the required dose – we did not have to change things after the start of the vaccinations, nor when the boosters started. As a result, it is difficult to know if the level of efficacy will still be 95 percent, but I would be very surprised if the level is very low. That 3 doses of vaccine will also be well preserved against the new corona strain. “
Did you find a mistake in the article? Does the content in the article infringe your copyright? Encountered an inappropriate advertisement? Report to us