The new COVID-19 variant named Omicron has officially gone global with reports of its detection arriving from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, the UK, and South Africa, where it was first detected. Its many mutations have got experts worried about how immunity to old strains will fare against the new variant. Among them: Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, who this week shared concerns that the existing vaccines might not be up to the task when it comes to combating Omicron. “There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level... we had with [the] Delta [variant],” Bancel told the Financial Times. “I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to... are like, ‘This is not going to be good’.” The new COVID-19 variant named Omicron has officially gone global with reports of its detection arriving from Belgium, Canada, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, the UK, and South Africa, where it was first detected. Its many mutations have got experts worried about how immunity to old strains will fare against the new variant. Among them: Stéphane Bancel, chief executive of Moderna, who this week shared concerns that the existing vaccines might not be up to the task when it comes to combating Omicron. “There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level... we had with [the] Delta [variant],” Bancel told the Financial Times. “I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to... are like, ‘This is not going to be good’.” Source
