Omicron: WHO advises vulnerable people to travel, warning of Moderna CEO – archyworldys

In the aftermath of the alert from the health ministers of the G7 countries declaring in a joint press release that the Omicron variant requires “Urgent action”, China acknowledged, Tuesday, November 30, that the new variant would mean additional difficulties for the organization of the Beijing Winter Olympics, which are to be held from February 4 to 20, 2022.

In an interview with Financial Times On Tuesday, Moderna’s chairman and chief executive officer (CEO), Stéphane Bancel, was pessimistic about the response of existing vaccines against this new variant of the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that Omicron presents “A very high risk” at the World level.

The pandemic has killed more than 5.1 million people worldwide since the end of 2019, according to a report established by Agence France-Presse from official sources on Monday. The WHO estimates, taking into account the excess mortality directly and indirectly linked to Covid-19, that the toll of the pandemic in the world could be two to three times higher than that calculated from official figures.

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• Existing vaccines will be less effective against Omicron, Moderna boss says

Existing vaccines against Covid-19 will be less effective against the Omicron variant and it will take several months to develop a new vaccine, said the boss of the American pharmaceutical company Moderna, Stéphane Bancel, in an interview published Tuesday in the Financial Times.

Mr. Bancel believes that there will be a “Significant decrease” the effectiveness of vaccines. “All the scientists I spoke to (…) say “That’s not going to do it” “, according to him. He explained to the daily that data on the effectiveness of current vaccines would be available in the next two weeks. He also said the researchers were concerned because 32 of the 50 mutations found in the Omicron variant are in the spike protein, the key to the virus entering the body. According to him, the current vaccine would not have “The same level of efficacy as we had against the Delta variant”.

Moderna has already announced its intention to develop a specific booster dose for this new variant, as has the American laboratory Pfizer. The laboratory boss estimated that his company was able to provide between two billion and three billion doses in 2022, but that it would be dangerous to direct all production to a vaccine specific to the Omicron variant while other strains of the virus are still circulating.

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The same questions arise for treatments. US biotech firm Regeneron announced on Tuesday that the effectiveness of its synthetic antibodies, which have emergency authorization in the United States, could be reduced in the face of the Omicron variant. “Analyzes are underway to confirm and quantify the possible impact using the sequence of the Omicron variant”, the company said in a statement.

• WHO advises vulnerable people against traveling

The WHO said Tuesday evening that general travel bans would not prevent the spread of the Omicron variant. She, however, advised the most vulnerable, “ in particular people aged 60 or over and those with co-morbidities “, to avoid traveling.

Many states have suspended travel to southern Africa and instituted preventive measures. After several European Union countries, including France, Germany and Italy, Spain announced on Tuesday the suspension of flights from southern Africa from Thursday until December 15.

In Asia, Japan, three weeks after relaxing some restrictions, banned since Tuesday “All entries of foreign nationals”. The government confirmed its first case of Omicron on Tuesday in a man returning from Namibia.

In the UK, wearing a mask in transport and shops became mandatory again on Tuesday. All arriving travelers must take a PCR test and self-isolate until the result. As of this weekend, London already no longer accepted non-Britons from ten African countries (South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola).

• A more complicated organization of the Winter Olympics in Beijing

While acknowledging additional difficulties, China on Tuesday reaffirmed its confidence in the success of the Winter Olympics in Beijing, despite the new Omicron variant, of which no case has so far been detected in the country, except in Hong Kong Autonomous Territory. “This will certainly bring some challenges in the fight against the epidemic”Zhao Lijian, a spokesperson for the Chinese foreign ministry, conceded at a press conference. “But China has experience in this area and I am fully convinced that the Winter Olympics will take place without worry and as planned”, he insisted.

China has largely controlled the epidemic on its soil thanks to draconian measures: very strong limitation of international flights, compulsory quarantine on arrival, massive screenings or even isolation of contact cases, identified thanks to travel tracking applications. Life almost resumed its normal course in the spring of last year. But the country is still faced with the appearance of small sporadic outbreaks.

While the Chinese borders have been practically closed since March 2020, the Beijing Games will take place in a health bubble from which the some 2,900 expected athletes will not be able to get out. They should either be vaccinated or undergo a twenty-one day quarantine upon arrival. All will be screened daily. Only spectators residing in China will be able to attend the events. China has reported in recent weeks only a few dozen new daily cases of Covid-19.

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• The Omicron variant was already in the Netherlands on November 19

Dutch health authorities said on Tuesday they had detected the Omicron variant in a test carried out on November 19, a week earlier than previously estimated, and checks are underway to see how far it has spread. “The Dutch Institute for Health and Environment detected the Omicron variant in two test samples that had already been collected in the Netherlands (…) November 19 and 23, 2021 “, he said in a statement.

The Netherlands announced on Monday that fourteen people were carriers of the Omicron variant in the country, all among the passengers who left South Africa and diagnosed positive for Covid-19 on Friday upon arrival in Amsterdam. However, the two samples had been taken even before South Africa reported to the WHO that it had detected this new variant, on November 24, causing a wave of panic and a ban on many territories for travelers from southern Africa. .

It is not yet possible to know “If the persons concerned [dans les cas précédents] also visited southern Africa ”, said the Dutch Institute of Health, adding that those tested had been informed and that the municipal health services had started to investigate their contacts. With 16 cases now confirmed, the Netherlands has one of the highest contamination figures for the new variant in Europe, at this stage.

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The World with AFP