What does omicron mean? Answers to the top five questions on Google

As soon as omicron was classified as a strain of concern on November 26, interest in the topic soared on the internet.

According to a survey carried out by Google, obtained exclusively by BBC News Brasil, “ômicron” was the term that had the greatest growth in the search engine and was among the 40 most searched in the country during the last week.

Discovered in South Africa, the new variant has already been detected in 18 other countries (including Brazil) and draws attention for the number and variety of genetic mutations.

For now, it is not known for sure how much more transmissible omicrons are, or if they manage to escape the immunity obtained with vaccines or with previous infection.

Studies that seek to understand these aspects are underway and the first results should be released in December.

Check out the most popular questions on the internet and the answers to them, according to experts.

1. What does omicron mean?

Ômicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet.

When the first variants of the coronavirus began to appear, scientists soon adopted a system for classifying them.

Thus, Sars-CoV-2 first identified in Wuhan, China, became the A strain.

Thereafter, as new mutations in the virus were described, they were divided by this code. Thus came the variant A.1, to A.2, to B.1.1, to C.30.1, and so on.

But there came a time when this system became a veritable soup of letters (and numbers) that caused tremendous confusion for those who are not experts in the field.

This was one of the factors that led the WHO (World Health Organization) to create a new criterion as of May 2021: the variants of concern (known by the acronym in English VOC) and the variants of interest (VOI) became named after the Greek alphabet.

As the name implies, VOC and VOI are strains that carry important mutations, which can make the virus more transmissible or aggressive, for example.

This is how B.1.1.7, discovered in the UK, became alpha, B.1.351 (South Africa) became beta, P.1 (Brazil) became gamma, B.1.617.2 ( India) in delta and B.1.1.529 (South Africa) in omicron.

These, by the way, are the five VOCs that have emerged so far.

In addition to practicality, there is a second reason why the WHO suggested the Greek alphabet. The idea was to avoid prejudices and xenophobic comments, which related the variant to its place of origin.

2. Why the name omicron?

The choice of the name omicron for B.1.529 took the scientific community by surprise.

This is because the last variant to be named with a Greek character was VOI B.1.621, detected in Colombia in January 2021. It is known as Mu, which is the 12th letter of the Greek alphabet.

It was thought, therefore, that the name that would be given to the next VOI or VOC would be the 13th letter, which is Nu (read “Ni” in Portuguese).

But the WHO decided to skip the two vague letters and go straight to the 15th: omicron.

Virologist Fernando Spilki, from the Feevale University, in Rio Grande do Sul, explains that this decision has to do with the sound of these letters in some languages.

“I know people who attended the meetings to choose that name and one reason Nu was dropped is that in English, its pronunciation sounds a lot like the sound of new [‘novo’ em português]. This could confuse people who, upon hearing the word, would not know if it was another new variant [new, em inglês] or the Nu variant”, details the specialist, who also coordinates the Corona-Ômica Network, of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

“The next letter in the Greek alphabet would be Csi. In this case, the phoneme is very similar to that of some common surnames in China, such as Xi. Hence, the WHO representatives thought it was better to discard it as well to avoid misunderstandings”, he adds.

If there are no more “jumps” in the alphabet, the next variants will be named Pi, Rô, Sigma, Tau, Upsilon, Fi, Chi, Psi and Omega.

3. Or what is known about the ômicron variant?

Despite having been detected very recently, the omicron drew a lot of attention for bringing several mutations in important parts of the coronavirus, such as the spike. This structure is responsible for connecting with the receptor on human cells and starting the infection.

“This new variant brings a huge number of mutations, something unprecedented”, explains virologist Flávio da Fonseca, professor at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais).

“Some of these genetic alterations we were already aware of, as they also appeared in previous variants and are related to the greater potential of the virus to spread, which becomes more infectious and transmits faster”, says the expert, who is also president of the Society Brazilian of Virology.

Another important observation is the apparent ability of omicron to become dominant: in South Africa, it has become the most frequent variant in recent days, even surpassing delta, which is also among the VOCs.

Experts therefore expect the transmission rate of this newly discovered version of the coronavirus to be quite high.

But there are a lot of things that remain uncertain, such as how much the omicron can escape the immunity obtained after vaccination or a previous Covid condition.

“Studies are underway to measure the real impact of this variant in different scenarios”, informs Spilki.

The trend is that these details will be better known over the next few weeks.

4. Or what variant ômicron causes?

Despite all the mutations, the omicron remains Sars-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes Covid-19.

As is well known, it is transmitted through saliva droplets or aerosols that come out of an infected person’s mouth or nose.

Most of the time, the illness is mild and the patient recovers after some time. But many affected develop stronger discomfort and need to be hospitalized, intubated and run a greater risk of dying.

“And it is worth noting here that the prevention methods follow the same with the micron: use of mask, physical distance and vaccination continue to be essential”, explains Fonseca.

5. What are the symptoms of the new omicron variant?

Reports from specialists who treated the first patients infected with omicron in South Africa indicate some important changes in the list of main symptoms.

Doctor Angelique Coetzee says that these individuals more often have complaints such as tiredness, muscle pain, “itchy” in the throat, low-grade fever and dry cough.

In an interview with BBC News, she also stated that those affected have so far developed milder ailments.

“It all started with a patient with mild symptoms. He said he was extremely tired for the past two days and had body aches and a little headache. Not even a sore throat, but something like a sore throat. No coughing. , no loss of smell or taste,” he says.

“Because it was very unusual for this particular patient to have this type of symptoms, I decided to test it. We did a rapid test, and it was positive,” said the doctor, who then tested the patient’s entire family, with positive results for the coronavirus, all with mild symptoms.

According to Brazilian health authorities, the cases of Covid caused by omicrons already detected in the country also show very mild symptoms.

But experts urge caution with this information: it is necessary to wait a little longer to be sure if the variant really causes a milder picture.

“The information that comes from South Africa about the lower severity brings us a sign of hope, but this still needs to be observed and studied more deeply”, ponders Fonseca.

“We still need to understand how the omicron will behave in different age groups and groups”, agrees Spilki.

As of December 2, 18 countries have detected omicron in their territories. The place with the most infections caused by the variant is South Africa, with 127 confirmed cases.

Next, appear Botswana (19 cases), Portugal (13), Netherlands (12), United Kingdom (8), Hong Kong (5), Brazil (5), Germany (4), Austria (4), Italy (4 ) and Canada (2).

Sweden, Spain, Israel, Belgium, Czech Republic and Reunion Island each have one case.