Is a specific vaccine necessary to combat the omicron variant?
2:07
(CNN Spanish) -
Scientists are studying whether the omicron variant of the new coronavirus causes a more or less serious disease than its predecessors.
In this episode, Dr. Elmer Huerta explains how the results of these studies could dictate the path of the covid-19 pandemic.
You can listen to this episode on Spotify or your favorite podcast platform, or read the transcript below.
Hello, I am Dr. Elmer Huerta and this is your dose of information on the new coronavirus.
Information that we hope will be useful to take care of your health and that of your family.
Today we will see what is known regarding the virulence of the new omicron variant, and how that characteristic may define the future of the covid-19 pandemic.
Let us remember, as we heard in the episode of November 29, that when a new variant is identified it is very important to know three characteristics of its behavior.
How more infectious than the previous variant it is;
in the case of omicron, find out how more infectious than the delta variant it is.
Know the severity of the disease it causes, that is, its virulence.
How effective it is in evading antibodies that are produced in response to natural disease or the vaccine.
The combination of these characteristics can be compared to a kind of puzzle, in which these three pieces are arranged to determine the impact of the new variant of the virus on the pandemic.
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How transmissible is the omicron variant?
Regarding the infectivity of omicron, in addition to anecdotal evidence that it is highly contagious, during the first week of December a study by Japanese scientist Hiroshi Nishiura, professor of Environmental and Health Sciences at the University of Kyoto, was released. and advisor to the Ministry of Health of Japan.
After analyzing the genome of omicron samples from Gauteng province, South Africa, available until November 26, the study concludes that this variant is —in its initial stage— 4.2 times more transmissible than delta.
But doubts remain regarding the virulence or type of disease that omicron causes.
In other words, if the covid-19 causing the new variant is milder, more severe, or the same as the previous variants, especially the delta.
Does this variant cause severe or mild COVID-19?
Data that is being known from the province of Gauteng, South Africa, says that:
Most cases are mild
Approximately 80% of patients hospitalized for covid-19 caused by omicron do not need oxygen
The vast majority were hospitalized for causes unrelated to covid-19
Obviously, these encouraging data have to be interpreted with great caution because they are still very early.
They do not represent what may happen in other countries, in different populations.
Let us remember that the population of South Africa is very young.
This is one of the countries with the highest prevalence of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
The possible interaction between this virus and omicron is unknown.
In this regard, a December 2 prepublication by nference scientists, a data management company based in the United States, India and Canada, has caused a stir in scientific circles and the popular press.
The new amino acid that generated omicron
After analyzing the genomes of 121 samples of the omicron variant, extracted from the database of the Global Initiative for Sharing Influenza Data (GISAID, for its acronym in English), the scientists found that the spike protein of the omicron variant has 26 mutated amino acids, of which 23 are substitutions or replacements, two are deletions or absences, and one is an insertion, that is, an added amino acid.
The central point of their study is that, while the substitution and absence mutations appear in various arrangements in previous variants of SARS-CoV-2, the singular insertion mutation, that is, that of aggregation of the new amino acid, has not been observed in earlier variants of the new coronavirus.
And therein lies the mystery, where did that genetic piece acquired by the new omicron variant come from?
I mean, where did you get it from and for what?
The authors postulate a hypothesis that has caused some controversy.
The mutated genetic piece of this variant
According to his idea, this mutated genetic piece could have been acquired when a person, perhaps someone with a decreased defense system (a person infected with HIV, for example), was infected by two viruses:
One of them the SARS-CoV-2
And the other, one of the other four cold-causing coronaviruses, the so-called HCov-229E.
Under these conditions, the scientists postulate, the two viruses could have exchanged genetic material within an infected cell.
This made it possible for a portion of the cold virus to be inserted into the SARS-CoV-2 genome, forming the omicron variant.
This insertion of the gene for the cold virus would give the omicron variant - the nference scientists speculate - the possibility of being less virulent, that is, of causing a less serious illness.
This is because - and it remains a speculation - because the human defense system would be able to recognize that acquired portion of the cold genome and would not react with the intensity that it normally does against other variants of the virus.
Scientists continue to study the variant
Various experts cited by CNN have stated that it is too premature to accept this tempting hypothesis, and that studies of patients in other countries should be awaited in order to draw more definitive conclusions.
Knowing what type of disease causes the new omicron variant is very important.
If it was proven that it causes a mild infection, it could be thought that - despite being more infectious and circumventing the antibodies produced in natural infection and vaccines - the disease would have reached the endemic stage.
This is the stage in which the covid-19 would become a health problem that does not cause epidemics with thousands of seriously ill patients in a short period of time at the same time that we saw in the previous waves.
On the other hand, if it were found that omicron causes the same type of disease as the previous variants, and because it is more contagious, we should be alert to very high numbers of infections, which could make health services collapse again.
We will continue to inform ...
Do you have questions about covid-19?
Send me your questions on Twitter, we will try to answer them in our next episodes.
You can find me at @Drhuerta.
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Thanks for your attention.
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