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- Ελληνικά
The whole planet is facing a tsunami of the new alarming "Omicron" variant of the coronavirus.
Scientists, politicians and all of us are struggling to understand what its appearance means for the evolution of the pandemic.
Restrictions are being tightened again throughout Europe to deal with the new wave of Omicron.
There is a flood of information, sometimes alarming, sometimes optimistic. But where are we in reality?
Why are we not as we were last winter
Although we seem to forget it easily, we are in a much better position today than we were last year, when many people could not even be with their families on Christmas Day.
The increase in cases of variant alpha in late 2020 led to a new lockdown from November, while vaccination campaigns had not even begun.
Omicron is less severe
If someone contracting "Omicron" is less likely to become severely ill than previous variants of the virus.
Studies from around the world show that "Omicron" is milder than "Delta", and the chance of being hospitalized because of it is 30 to 70% lower.
Omicron can cause symptoms similar to those of the common cold such as sore throat, runny nose and headache, but this does not mean it will be mild for everyone and some people are still at risk of severe illness.
Changes to the virus appear to have made it less dangerous, but the reduced risk is mainly due to immunity acquired through vaccination and/or infection with the virus.
But Omicron spreads very quickly
There are, however, concerns that the severity factor is only part of the equation, if we are also concerned about whether hospitals will be able to cope.
That is, if the risk of Omicron hospitalisation is halved, but twice as many people are infected, then the latter cancels out the former and we are back to square one.
And Omicron's real talent is infecting people. It spreads faster than previous variants of the virus and to some extent escapes the immune protection of vaccines or disease.
What happens when Omicron "hits" the elderly?
The elderly have always been at greater risk of severe disease from Covid.
In the UK, most Omicron cases and people who end up in hospital because of it are under the age of 40, so it is not yet known what will happen when it starts infecting the elderly and vulnerable.
Omicron's ability to partially escape immunity means that more older people are likely to be infected by it than during the Delta wave.
Many immunised, but protection wanes
Two doses of vaccine do not offer enough protection against 'Omicron' infection, leading to a massive expansion of third-dose campaigns.
In the UK, more than 31 million people have boosted their immunity levels through booster doses.
However, protection against 'Omicron' infection appears to decline after about ten weeks. Protection against severe disease, however, is likely to last much longer.
There are, however, antiviral drugs
New drugs are expected to shield even more people against the risk of hospitalisation.
They are given to people in high-risk groups from Covid, including cancer patients and people who have had organ transplants.
Molnupiravir is an antiviral drug that prevents Omicron from multiplying in the body and reduces hospital admissions by 30%. Sotrovimab is an antibody therapy that binds to the virus and reduces hospital visits by 79%.
Both drugs contain the virus in a way that gives the immune system time to react.
We will soon know more
The question is whether all that is to our advantage - Omicron's milder effect, antibiotics and booster doses - will be enough to tackle a variant of the virus that is spreading faster than any in the past.
Or, will even more measures be needed to counter the Omicron surge?
The speed at which it is spreading means we will know very soon how things will play out.
Source: BBC/in.gr
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