Top health officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are warning that the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, could peak in a huge U.S. wave as soon as January.
Using new modeling for the spread of the variant, the CDC said Tuesday the prevalence of Omicron has spiked sevenfold in just one week.
“The CDC briefing Tuesday detailed two scenarios for how the omicron variant may spread through the country,” The Washington Post reported. “The worst-case scenario has spooked top health officials, who fear that a fresh wave, layered on top of delta and influenza cases in what one described as ‘a triple whammy,’ could overwhelm health systems and devastate communities, particularly those with low vaccination rates.”
“I’m a lot more alarmed. I’m worried,” Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, who participated in the briefing call with federal officials, told the news site. While the CDC has so far been cautious about the variant, officials from the federal health site said public health workers need to “get people ready for this,” he said.
While numerous reports, including this one from the Associated Press, say early indications are that the variant spreads more rapidly but results in milder symptoms, the CDC is worried that many Americans have not yet had booster shots, which pharmaceutical companies say will help alleviate the symptoms and keep people from being hospitalized.
On Monday, the CDC said eight out of 10 people who have caught the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 were fully vaccinated. Based on an examination of diagnoses from December 1-8, there were 43 cases attributed to Omicron; 34 were among people who had been “fully vaccinated.” What’s more, one-third of the 34 had also received a third “booster” shot.
Just one of those suffering from the Omicron variant was briefly hospitalized.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who serves as President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser on COVID-19, now says “the early data indicates that Omicron may not pose as great a risk of serious illness as the Delta variant, but stressed that further information is needed before he can definitively confirm that,” The Daily Mail reported.
Fauci said federal officials are “continuing to evaluate” whether to urge Americans to get a booster shot to be considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19. “For official requirements, it’s still two shots of the mRNA and one shot of the J&J for the official determination of what’s required or not,” Fauci told ABC News on Sunday.
Last Wednesday, Pfizer-BioNTech said that initial results from studies examining how well their vaccine protects against a new coronavirus variant found that a booster shot — on top of a two-dose vaccine regimen — neutralizes Omicron in lab studies.
The pharmaceutical company said that just two shots showed decreased protection in studies, but a booster dose significantly raises protection.
“According to the companies’ preliminary data, a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against wild-type and other variants that emerged before Omicron,” they said in a press release.
“These antibody levels are associated with high efficacy against both the wild-type virus and these variants. A third dose also strongly increases CD8+ T cell levels against multiple spike protein epitopes, which are considered to correlate with the protection against severe disease. Compared to the wild-type virus, the vast majority of these epitopes remain unchanged in the Omicron spike variant,” the release said.
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Source: Dailywire
