The World Health Organization (WHO) has raised the alarm today that the SARS-Cov 2 variant known as Omicron is now spreading like wildfire across the world.
“Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. We are concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild. 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,” WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said as he announced that 77 countries have now reported cases of Omicron.
The alarm was raised at a World Press Conference coordinated by WHO spokesman – Tarik Jasarevic, and attended by Dr. Mike Ryan, Executive Director of WHO; Dr. Kate O’Brien, Director for Immunization Vaccines and Biologicals; Dr. Mariange Simau, Assistant Director-General for access to medicines and health products; Dr. Bruce Aylord, Senior Adviser to the Director-General and lead on act accelerator; Dr. Abdi Mahmoud, Incident Manager on COVID-19 incident management support team; Dr. Anna Maria and an Estrepo who is a colleague on research and development at the blueprint at WHO.
In his opening remarks, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the reality today is that OMICRON is now in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet.
He said, “Omicron is spreading at a rate we have not seen with any previous variant. We are concerned that people are dismissing Omicron as mild. 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.
“I need to be very clear, Vaccines alone will not get any country out of this crisis. Countries can and must prevent the spread of omicron with measures that work today.”
“It’s not vaccines instead of masks. It’s not vaccines instead of distancing. It’s not vaccines instead of ventilation or hand hygiene. Do it all.
“Vaccines are tools that have the greatest impact when they’re used to protect those who are most at risk. In all countries. In the past 10 weeks, COVAX has shipped more vaccines than in the first nine months of the year combined. Most countries are using vaccines as fast as they get them. A small group of countries is facing challenges rolling out vaccines and scaling up rapidly.”
He said that evolving evidence has shown just a small “decline in the effectiveness of vaccines against severe disease and death. And a decline in preventing mild disease or infection. The emergence of omicron has prompted some countries to roll out booster programs for their entire adult populations. Even while we lack evidence for the effectiveness of boosters against this variant. WHO is concerned that such programs will repeat the vaccine hoarding we saw this year and exacerbate inequity…”
