Meanwhile, President Biden applauded South Africa for quickly disclosing the variant, saying 'this kind of transparency is to be encouraged and applauded because it increases our ability to respond quickly to any new threats.
The vaccines provide to layers of protection against COVID: the first involves antibodies, which prevent people from becoming infected in the first place by preventing viruses from colonizing healthy cells in the body and the second involves T-cells, immune cells in the body that mobilize to destroy infected cells after an infection has occurred.Īntibodies can start to fade about five months after the second dose Omicron is likely to be better at circumventing the antibodies generated from the vaccine, Dr. He said he expects vaccinated people will have a high degree of protection against Omicron and other variants. 'Our message is: Don't freak out, the plan remains the same: Speed up the administration of a third booster shot,' Dr. The variant could could lead to more infections among vaccinated people but they will most likely remain protected from severe illness, BioNTech SE co-founder Ugur Sahin, the inventor of one of the first COVID-19 vaccines, told the Wall Street Journal. Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa but is thought to have originated in Botswana, is the most-mutated form of the coronavirus yet found. Moderna alongside other vaccine manufacturers is working on a tweaked version of their jab to fight the Omicron variant.īut scientists say it could take 100 days before it is available. 'But so that we are prepared if needed, my team is already working with officials at Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans for vaccines or boosters if needed.' The strain is expected to make current vaccines significantly weaker at preventing infections, but it's less clear how it will impact hospitalizations and deaths.īiden said at a White House press conference Monday: 'We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed' to combat Omicron. Meanwhile, scientists say it will take two weeks to truly work out how effective jabs are against Omicron, which has twice as many mutations on its spike protein as Delta. We need more vaccines in South Africa, in southern African and in the rest of the African continent,' he said. 'We do need more vaccines for sure, that is not a question. The CDC has expanded booster guidelines to include all adult Americans.īut Stephane Bancel, chief executive at vaccine maker Moderna, warned it will take months to develop an Omicron-specific booster, possibly to summer 2022. The president also argued the best protection against Omicron is being fully vaccinated, getting the booster shot and wearing a face mask. Biden argued the ban would buy scientists time to learn more about Omicron, which the World Health Organization said is highly transmissible and a 'variant of concern.' The United States travel ban went into affect on Monday. 'South African science should be commended for discovering this new variant and sharing the information with the world.' 'We feel that the travel ban is very unfair,' Xolisa Mabhongo, the deputy permanent representative of South Africa to the United Nations told CNN's New Day Tuesday morning.
A representative of South Africa called President Joe Biden's travel ban 'unfair' and urged the United States to share more of its vaccine supply as the Omicron variant of COVID spreads around the world.
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