US health officials call for caution, but not panic, for the omicron . variant

Read: Here’s what we know about the COVID omicron variant – and what we didn’t know

Dr Jonathan Reiner told CNN: “This is a story based purely on speculation. “We’ll have data from really hard-working scientists over the next few weeks to help inform how we can put this new variant into context.”

In a series of interviews on Sunday morning talk shows, Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to the White House, said the omicron variant was coming. American is inevitable, while also warning that it may be easier to transmit than other variants, even delta. He also stressed that while there’s still a lot we don’t know about omicrons, it’s better to be safe – and maybe overreact – than apologise.

“We really need, as I say so often, to prepare for the worst,” Fauci told ABC News ‘”This week.” “It may not be that we will have to go down the path that people say. We don’t know much about this virus. So we want to prepare as best we can, but maybe this preparation, while important, may not necessarily push us to the next level.”

Fauci says vaccinations and health-promoting injections are still the best defense.

“I don’t think there is any possibility that this could completely avoid any vaccine protection. It might detract a little bit, but that’s why you push,” he told ABC News. Fauci said in a separate interview: “If there was ever a reason for those who were vaccinated to stay healthy and the unvaccinated to be vaccinated, that’s why. with NBC News.

In an interview on Fox News, Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, agreed that the vaccine “most likely” will protect against omicrons, though it’s too early to say for sure.

“We hope that it is very likely that current vaccines will be sufficient to provide protection,” Collins told “Fox News Sunday.” “And boosters in particular are going to provide an extra layer of protection because there’s something about boosters that makes your immune system really expand against all these different mutated proteins. , even those he had never seen before.”

Speaking to CNN, Collins added that more basic precautions are also important.

“It also means we need to pay attention to mitigation strategies that people are really sick of, such as wearing a mask when you’re indoors with other people who may not be vaccinated and keeping a distance from others. that social way,” Collins told CNN. “I know, America – you get really tired of hearing that. But the virus does not make us tired. And it is changing shape by itself. “

But the bottom line, “This is the most interesting variation we’ve seen since delta,” says Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Interpreting Institute, told the Washington Post on Friday. “It would take a really high standard for something to take over delta, and we don’t know if this will do.”