The Omicron variant appears to be no worse than other coronavirus strains and is highly unlikely to completely evade vaccine protections and, said top WHO and US scientists on Tuesday amid growing public health concerns.
The hopeful assessments came as global concern grew over the mutated coronavirus variant, which has forced dozens of nations to re-impose border restrictions and raised the possibility of a return of economically punishing lockdowns.
While it is likely more transmissible than previous variants, Omicron is also "highly unlikely" to completely evade vaccine protections, the World Health Organization's second-in-command told AFP on Tuesday.
"The preliminary data doesn't indicate that this is more severe. In fact, if anything, the direction is towards less severity," said WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan.
While insisting that more research was needed, Ryan said there was no sign that Omicron could fully sidestep protections provided by existing Covid vaccines.
"We have highly effective vaccines that have proved effective against all the variants so far, in terms of severe disease and hospitalisation... There's no reason to expect that it wouldn't be so" for Omicron, he added, pointing to initial data from South Africa, where the strain was first reported.
However, Ryan acknowledged that it was possible that existing vaccines might prove less effective against Omicron, which counts more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that dots the surface of the coronavirus and allows it to invade cells.
'Not more severe' than Delta, says Fauci
Top US scientist Anthony Fauci echoed the WHO's view, saying Omicron did not appear worse than prior strains based on early indications – and was possibly milder.
The new variant is "clearly highly transmissible", very likely more so than Delta, the current dominant global strain, Fauci told AFP.
"It almost certainly is not more severe than Delta," he added. "There is some suggestion that it might even be less severe."
But he noted it was important to not over-interpret this data because the populations being followed skewed young and were less likely to become hospitalised. Severe disease can also take weeks to develop.
"Then as we get more infections throughout the rest of the world, it might take longer to see what's the level of severity."
EU agencies endorse mixing and matching
The detection of the first Omicron cases last month coincided with surges in infection numbers across the world, and the variant added fuel to concerns about a global Covid-19 resurgence.
The EU's health agencies on Tuesday said a mixing and matching of approved Covid-19 vaccines could be used for both the initial courses and booster doses, as the region battles rising cases ahead of the holiday season.
Evidence suggests that the combination of viral vector vaccines and mRNA vaccines produces good levels of antibodies against the coronavirus causing Covid-19, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said in a statement.
Covid-19 has killed more than 5.2 million people around the world since the coronavirus was first declared in late 2019, with scientists and health experts saying vaccinations and continued social distancing are keys to defeating the disease.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
