Omicron Italia variant, mild symptoms and contagions: what the experts say

Spotlight on the Omicron variant of Covid, on data and infections, and on what at the moment seem mild symptoms, as in the case of ‘patient zero’ in Italy. For the CTS coordinator and president of the Higher Health Council, Franco Locatelli, worrying about Omicron “is excessive”. This variant of SARS Cov-2 “has quickly become largely preponderant in South Africa” ​​and it is assumed that it is “more contagious”. This is why it must be “kept under control” and “neither underestimated nor dramatized”, Locatelli told SkyTg24. According to the CTS coordinator “everything leads us to hypothesize that Omicron is more contagious. We need to understand if there is a greater pathogenicity, but it would seem not, even if the population of South Africa is younger than the Italian one. So it must be carefully evaluated with studies. rigorous “. “To date, no variant has been shown to be resistant to the effect of vaccines,” he points out. And “the third dose to counteract the variant is also necessary”. Then, with respect to the hypothesis of a fourth vaccination dose in the near future, he explains that “it cannot be ruled out.” “In a few days I felt too much alarmism among colleagues and also among politicians: let’s avoid this attitude – he comments to Adnkronos Salute Matteo Bassetti, head of the infectious diseases department of the San Martino hospital in Genoa – The vaccines we are using are protecting us from serious illness and the risk of death. And this is the only thing that interests us “. “Our primary goal is to reduce hospital admissions and at the moment, for this eventuality, those who are vaccinated with two doses are also protected by Omicron – says Bassetti – Two things are further confirmed: that the more vaccinated countries have fewer problems than to those who are further behind, like South Africa, and that vaccines in spite of everything, for example the many mutations of Omicron, work “. The alarm on the Omicron variant of Sars-Cov -2” is premature and excessive “he tells the Adnkronos Salute Carlo Signorelli, full professor of Hygiene and director of the School of Specialization in Hygiene and Preventive Medicine of the Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan. “Data is needed to comment or pronounce. At the moment we do not know anything, particularly how the variant behaves with respect to vaccines. In this situation, ‘shaking’ the markets with strong news is exaggerated,” he adds. “The correct attitude is. wait for the data – continues Signorelli – and the distinction will obviously be the effectiveness of the vaccines against Omicron. If the vaccines are effective, it will be a variant like the others. If they do not have to be so, but up to now it has never happened and it is unlikely – he stresses – we should worry more. We must proceed with an attitude of prudence, of course, but this does not mean that we should be alarmed “. “The Omicron variant appears to have caused no particularly severe symptoms. If the vaccine is an umbrella with a few holes, I still use it when it rains.” Professor Massimo Galli thus answers, in L’aria che tira, the questions about the new Omicron variant. “We have been told that Omicron has 32 mutations and a dozen are located at the point of attachment of our cells, which is why it has automatically become a disturbing variant, but it does not appear to kill vaccinated people. Symptoms seem mild but we need to. time to evaluate more data “, says Galli.” Maximum attention must be maintained, but there is no need to take excessively alarmist positions. It is not the variant that pierces everything, it could pierce in part. get vaccinated and the third dose should help us to secure the citizens. If the vaccine is an umbrella with a few holes, when it rains I use it anyway. If the vaccine is updated, we will take advantage of it when it becomes available “, adds Galli.