Can vaccines give protection against new COVID-19 variant Omicron? Here's what top UK scientist says

New Delhi, Nov 27: The Covid-19 variant named Omicron by the WHO, detected in South Africa, is not a disaster and vaccines are likely to give protection against severe disease, a UK scientist, who advises the government, said on Saturday.

Microbiologist from the UK government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) Calum Semple has cautioned against the worldwide headlines around new variant which is potentially more infectious and vaccine-resistant, as per health authorities.

"This is not a disaster, and the headlines from some of my colleagues saying 'this is horrendous' I think are hugely overstating the situation," PTI quotes Professor Semple as telling the BBC. "Immunity from vaccination is still likely to protect you from severe disease. You might get a snuffle or a headache or a filthy cold but your chance of coming into hospital, or intensive care or sadly dying are greatly diminished by the vaccine and still will be going into the future," he said.

The B.1.1.529 variant was first reported to the World Health Organisation (WHO) from South Africa on Wednesday and detected in Botswana, Belgium, Hong Kong and Israel. Now, countries have started imposing travel bans and restrictions on southern African countries in an effort to contain Omicron's spread. Semple said that while it may not be possible to stop the variant coming to the UK, it is still important to delay its arrival.

"If you can slow the virus coming into your country, it gives you more time for your booster campaign to get ahead of it. It also gives the scientists longer to understand more about the virus in case there is anything we really should be worrying about," he said.

According to a vaccine expert, the new variant is unlikely to trigger a major new wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK. It is too early to be certain whether the new variant will be will be able to evade current vaccinations, something unlikely to be known for up to three weeks. But he said that most of the mutations in Omicron are in the same parts of the spike protein as those in the other variants that have emerged.

"At least from a speculative point of view, we have some optimism that the vaccine should still work against a new variant for serious disease, but really we need to wait several weeks to have that confirmed. It's extremely unlikely that a reboot of a pandemic in a vaccinated population like we saw last year is going to happen," said Professor Pollard.

England's Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, told a local government panel that he remained more concerned about the risks posed by existing variants, describing the Delta epidemic as "undoubtedly the principal thing we need to concern ourselves with between now and Christmas".

"We've always known that new variants would crop up from time to time... but there's an awful lot we don't know and I think it's probably not terribly helpful to speculate," he said. Sir John Bell, one of the government's most senior advisers on vaccines, said that the new variant may end up causing no more than "runny noses and headaches" in those who have been vaccinated. Sir John, the Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford, said while the new variant might evade antibodies, it would be less likely to escape T-cells and other parts of the immune system that provide broader protection.

"You could still have a highly infectious virus that scoots around and causes lots of trouble, but causes lots of, you know, runny noses and headaches but doesn't put people into hospital. Honestly, you could live with that, I think," he said.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical majors Pfizer and BioNTech said they expect "to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval".

Moderna said it has advanced a "comprehensive strategy to anticipate new variants of concern" since early 2021 - including three levels of response if the immunity offered by its jabs wanes. Meanwhile, Novavax added it has already started creating a COVID-19 vaccine based on the known genetic sequence of B.1.1.529 "and will have it ready to begin testing and manufacturing within the next few weeks". It comes as the UK's official figures revealed another day of high daily coronavirus cases, with 50,091 COVID infections and 160 deaths recorded on Friday.

The WHO, which convened a meeting of a group of experts on Friday, said that "preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant," as compared to other variants. "The number of cases of this variant appears to be increasing in almost all provinces in South Africa," it said.