Considerations regarding the discover of the new variant Omicron

Peter Hoetz

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have to be really careful about being too dismissive of Omicron. Rising hospitalizations as healthcare workers are sidelined with their own COVID cases is also concerning, as are fewer effective therapeutics. We're in for a pretty serious time.”

Reuters

Infectious disease expert at Baylor College of Medicine

30 Dec 2021 4 5

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“I'm highly concerned that omicron, being more transmissible (and) circulating at the same time as delta, is leading to a tsunami of cases. That will put immense pressure on exhausted health workers and health systems of the brink of collapse. I still remain optimistic that this can be the year we can not only end the acute stage of the pandemic, but we also chart a path to stronger health security.”

Apnews

Director-General of the World Health Organization

29 Dec 2021 6 2

William Schaffner

Inserted 2 years ago

“Although hospitalizations may be less, that doesn't mean zero. There are many places in the country where hospitalizations now are increasing.”

Cnn

Professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

24 Dec 2021 2 3

Maria Van Kerkhove

Inserted 2 years ago

“Less than 0.1% each of the sequences uploaded to platforms like GISAID have been Alpha, Beta and Gamma. 96% of the sequences available are still Delta. About 1.6% of sequences that have been shared in recent weeks is Omicron. We definitely see increasing growth rates of Omicron where it's been detected and it's now been reported in more than 106 countries to date. There is a combination of factors that we think are leading to this increasing transmission. First are the mutations that are identified in the Omicron variant and we know something about these mutations because some of these are present in other variants of concern. So, for example, in Omicron there are mutations that allow the virus to adhere to the cell more easily and infect the cell more easily. We also see immune escape where we see increasing rates of reinfection. And then there is some preliminary data that's looking at the efficiency and replication of the Omicron variant in the upper respiratory tract as opposed to the lower respiratory tract in the lungs. So this combination of factors is likely leading to why we are seeing increased growth rates in a number of countries.”

Twitter

World Health Organization (WHO) epidemiologist

22 Dec 2021 14 2

Matthew Binnicker

Inserted 2 years ago

“It's important to emphasize that if omicron has a much higher transmission rate compared to delta, the absolute number of people requiring hospitalization might still increase, despite less severe disease in most cases.”

Apnews

Director of clinical virology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota

22 Dec 2021 4 2

Anthony Fauci

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are many of these parties that have 30, 40, 50 people in which you do not know the vaccination status of individuals. Those are the kind of functions in the context of Omicron that you do not want to go to.”

Usnews

Top US infectious disease expert

22 Dec 2021 3 3

Bonnie Henry

Inserted 2 years ago

“We are learning about this virus after two years, almost two years, and we know that it is inevitable now that most of us in the province will be exposed at some point, the way that this virus is being transmitted, this strain of the virus is being transmitted in communities across the province. It is over time very likely that all of us will have exposure to it. How it affects us depends on our own actions and what we are doing.”

Cbc

Provincial Health Officer for British Columbia

21 Dec 2021 5 4

Amesh Adalja

Inserted 2 years ago

“All of us have a date with omicron. If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life, omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated.”

Apnews

20 Dec 2021 3 3

Francis Collins

Inserted 2 years ago

“Even if it has a somewhat lower risk of severity, we could be having a million cases a day if we're not really attentive to all of those mitigation strategies. And you know a small fraction of a big number is still a really big number. I don't know that we'll hit that but there are certainly projections that say that could happen with a virus that seems to doubling most places where it's been every two to four days. I know people are tired of this. I'm tired of it too, believe me. But the virus is not tired of us.”

Thehill

Outgoing director of the National Institutes of Health

20 Dec 2021 2 3

World Health Organization

Inserted 2 years ago

“There are still limited data on the clinical severity of Omicron. More data are needed to understand the severity profile and how severity is impacted by vaccination and pre-existing immunity. There are still limited available data, and no peer-reviewed evidence, on vaccine efficacy or effectiveness to date for Omicron.”

Aljazeera

Statement by World Health Organization

18 Dec 2021 3 4

Sandra Ciesek

Inserted 2 years ago

“A booster jab will pump up your protection to 70-75% and it will also reduce your risk of a severe infection but that could also lend you a false sense of security. While it is important to get the unvaccinated vaccinated, first jabs would not be enough to fight off omicron. It takes many weeks for the immune system to develop a defense. The virus moves faster than that.”

Dw

Director of the Institute of Medical Virology at the University Hospital Frankfurt

17 Dec 2021 7 6

Jeremy Kamil

Inserted 2 years ago

“These authors found Omicron replicates fantastically well - even far better than either Delta or the original virus - in bronchial tissue. This could in some ways contribute to an advantage in spread/transmission between people. Of course, a huge component of Omicron's transmissibility in real life is going to be its potential to escape neutralising antibodies that protect against infect in the first place. It's very likely spreading well even between vaccinated people, especially those who haven't recently gotten a booster shot.”

Theguardian

Associate professor of microbiology and immunology at Louisiana State University Health Shreveport

15 Dec 2021 8 3

Michael Chan Chi-wai

Inserted 2 years ago

“It is also noted that by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from the Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.”

Theguardian

Associate Professor University of Hong Kong - Division of Public Health Laboratory Sciences

15 Dec 2021 6 2

Peter Jüni

Inserted 2 years ago

“Most people in Canada, like other wealthy countries, haven't been infected with COVID-19. So if they lack vaccine protection they are especially vulnerable to Omicron. What really worries me is that people are asleep at the steering wheel, internationally. They have wishful thinking it will be mild ... This is not a realistic attitude. I'm completely exhausted. I've had it. I'm done completely. But the virus doesn't care.”

Reuters

Director of Ontario's COVID-19 Science Advisory Table

15 Dec 2021 5 4

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“Seventy-seven countries have now reported cases of Omicron, and the reality is that Omicron is probably in most countries, even if it hasn't been detected yet. Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. Surely, we have learned by now that we underestimate this virus at our peril. Even if Omicron does cause less severe disease, the sheer number of cases could once again overwhelm unprepared health systems.”

Aljazeera

Director-General of the World Health Organization

14 Dec 2021 5 2

Kate O'Brien

Inserted 2 years ago

“We have to make sure that it [higher shipments] continues. As we head into whatever the Omicron situation is going to be, there is risk that the global supply is again going to revert to high-income countries hoarding vaccines as they seek to protect their ability to inoculate their citizens.”

Aljazeera

Director of the Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals Department at the World Health Organization

09 Dec 2021 3 3

Mike Ryan

Inserted 2 years ago

“Data indicates the variant is efficiently transmitting, and probably more efficiently transmitting even than the Delta variant. That does not mean that the virus is unstoppable. But it means the virus is more efficient at transmitting between human beings. And, therefore, we have to redouble our efforts to break those chains of transmission to protect ourselves to protect others.”

Aljazeera

Head of WHO’s emergencies programme

08 Dec 2021 6 2

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus

Inserted 2 years ago

“Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of reinfection with Omicron. There is also some evidence that Omicron causes milder disease than Delta.”

Aljazeera

Director-General of the World Health Organization

08 Dec 2021 5 2

Subhas Menon

Inserted 2 years ago

“We still haven't figured out whether this is a spanner in the works or a fly in the ointment. From what we see now it looks more like a fly in the ointment that is still good for using.”

Aljazeera

Association of Asia Pacific Airlines Director-General

07 Dec 2021 1 3

Campbell Wilson

Inserted 2 years ago

“We were seeing accelerating openings until Omicron. We have seen basically a pause since then. We haven't seen a lot of retrograde steps, though there have been some exceptions.”

Aljazeera

Chief executive officer of Scoot (Singapore Airlines budget offshoot)

07 Dec 2021 1 4

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“We have to be really careful about being too dismissive of Omicron. Rising hospitalizations as healthcare workers are sidelined with their own COVID cases is also concerning, as are fewer effective therapeutics. We're in for a pretty serious time.”

“Although hospitalizations may be less, that doesn't mean zero. There are many places in the country where hospitalizations now are increasing.”

“It's important to emphasize that if omicron has a much higher transmission rate compared to delta, the absolute number of people requiring hospitalization might still increase, despite less severe disease in most cases.”

“There are many of these parties that have 30, 40, 50 people in which you do not know the vaccination status of individuals. Those are the kind of functions in the context of Omicron that you do not want to go to.”

“All of us have a date with omicron. If you're going to interact with society, if you're going to have any type of life, omicron will be something you encounter, and the best way you can encounter this is to be fully vaccinated.”

“We have to make sure that it [higher shipments] continues. As we head into whatever the Omicron situation is going to be, there is risk that the global supply is again going to revert to high-income countries hoarding vaccines as they seek to protect their ability to inoculate their citizens.”

“Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of reinfection with Omicron. There is also some evidence that Omicron causes milder disease than Delta.”

“We still haven't figured out whether this is a spanner in the works or a fly in the ointment. From what we see now it looks more like a fly in the ointment that is still good for using.”

“We were seeing accelerating openings until Omicron. We have seen basically a pause since then. We haven't seen a lot of retrograde steps, though there have been some exceptions.”

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