WHO chief: Omicron may pose higher reinfection risk, but could be milder than Delta

Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img alt="Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Reuters/file" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2021/life/12/08/20211208-tedros-adhanom-ghebreyesus-rtr.jpg"/><figcaption>World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends a ceremony at the WHO headquarters, in Geneva, Switzerland on October 18, 2021 to launch a multiyear partnership with Qatar on making FIFA Football World Cup 2022 and mega-sporting events healthy and safe. <em>Fabrice Coffrini, Pool via Reuters/file</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>Early data indicates the omicron coronavirus variant may more easily reinfect people who have already had the virus or been vaccinated than previous variants, but could also cause milder disease, the WHO said Thursday.</p><p>&quot;Emerging data from South Africa suggests increased risk of reinfection with omicron,&quot; World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters, adding that &quot;there is also some evidence that omicron causes milder disease than Delta&quot;.</p><p>But he stressed that more data was needed before drawing firm conclusions, and urged countries everywhere to boost their surveillance to help provide a clearer picture of how omicron is behaving.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/12/08/21/omicron-reported-in-57-countries-hospitalizations-set-to-rise-who">Omicron reported in 57 countries, hospitalisations set to rise: WHO says</a></li></ul><p>The hopeful assessments came as global concern grew over the heavily mutated variant, which has forced dozens of nations to re-impose border restrictions and raised the possibility of a return to economically punishing lockdowns.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/08/21/omicron-no-worse-than-other-variants-top-scientists">Omicron no worse than other virus variants, say top WHO, US scientists</a></li></ul><p>Even if it does turn out that omicron causes less severe disease, Tedros warned against slacking off vigilance against the virus.</p><p>&quot;Any complacency now will cost lives,&quot; he warned.</p><p>WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan agreed, pointing out that so far the data indicates the variant is &quot;efficiently transmitting, and probably more efficiently transmitting even than the Delta variant.&quot;</p><p>&quot;That does not mean that the virus is unstoppable,&quot; he said.</p><p>&quot;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.&quot;</p><p>Even if the new variant turns out to be less dangerous than previous variants, if it transmits more rapidly, it could still sicken more people, overburden health systems, &quot;and more people die,&quot; he said.</p><p>The WHO experts stressed the importance of vaccination, highlighting that even if vaccines prove less effective against omicron, as some data indicates, they are still expected to provide significant protection against severe disease.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/news/12/08/21/doh-locates-returning-filipino-from-south-africa-tracks-7-more">Returning Filipino from South Africa located, 7 more to be traced, says DOH</a></li></ul><p>Chief WHO scientist Soumya Swaminathan cautioned against knee-jerk reactions to early studies hinting that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine may have reduced efficacy against the new variant.</p><ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/overseas/12/08/21/highly-unlikely-existing-vaccines-will-fail-vs-omicron-who">&#x27;Highly unlikely&#x27; existing vaccines will fail vs Omicron: WHO</a></li></ul><p>She pointed out that the studies done so far were small and that the reduction in the &quot;neutralizing activity&quot; varied dramatically between different studies, from 4 to 5 fold in some experiments to up to 40-fold in others.</p><p>They also only looked at the neutralization of antibodies, when &quot;we know the immune system is much more complex than that,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;So I think it&#x27;s premature to conclude that this reduction neutralizing activity would result in a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness,&quot; she said. &quot;We do not know that.&quot;</p><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=1855132" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more in <a href="//www.iwantv.com.ph/">iWantv</a> or <a href="//tfc.tv/">TFC.tv</a></div>

But World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that more data was needed before drawing firm conclusions.

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WHO chief: Omicron may pose higher reinfection risk, but could be milder than Delta

WHO chief: Omicron may pose higher reinfection risk, but could be milder than Delta

Agence France-Presse

Published Dec 09, 2021 02:04 AM PHT

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COVID 19

coronavirus

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