WHO says this is not the time to say that the omicron is welcome

The executive director of the WHO (World Health Organization) health emergencies program, Michael Ryan, said on Wednesday (12) that “this is not the time to declare that this virus is welcome, no virus that kills people welcome”.

Ryan’s speech comes shortly after a journalist read, at the WHO press conference this Wednesday (12), the statement by President Bolsonaro who minimized the new strain.

“They even say it would be a vaccine virus. They should even… According to some studious and serious people – and not linked to pharmaceutical companies – they say that the ômicron is welcome and can indeed signal the end of the pandemic”, said the representative.

At the same press conference, Tedros Adhanom, director-general of the WHO, reiterated that “although the omicron causes less serious illness than the delta, it remains a dangerous virus, especially for those who are not vaccinated”.

Characterized by its high transmission capacity, the omicron is already the predominant strain in some countries, such as the United States and the United Kingdom. In Brazil, the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, said on Tuesday (11) that “she [ômicron] is already prevalent here in Brazil, we are seeing the increase in cases”.

According to data from the WHO epidemiological bulletin released this Tuesday (11), there was a 55% increase in Covid-19 diagnoses worldwide between January 3 and 9 when compared to the previous week.

The emergency situation is even more critical when one observes the low vaccine equity between countries, a point always criticized by the WHO director. According to him, at a press conference last Thursday (6), at the current vaccination rate, “109 countries will not reach the goal of vaccinating the entire population by the beginning of July 2022”, which makes it difficult to end the pandemic.

Adhanom also reiterated that the fact that it is more transmissible already makes the omicron a cause for concern. “More transmission means more hospitalizations, more deaths, more people away from work, including teachers and healthcare professionals, and more risk of another variant emerging that is even more transmissible and deadlier than the omicron.”

The WHO, in a previous interview, had already stated that the use of vaccines alone will not be enough to stop the transmission of the strain, even because it has some vaccine escape as some studies have already shown. In this way, experts reiterate the importance of taking other actions, such as avoiding large agglomerations, wearing protective masks and giving preference to well-ventilated environments.

Even so, vaccination is still an important instrument, mainly to prevent severe cases and to stop the emergence of new variants. “We can hope [de que a ômicron será a última variante], but we don’t do enough to prevent new [cepas]”, said Ryan last Thursday (6).

He pointed out that billions of people have not yet been vaccinated and this is an important factor because it contributes to the greater circulation of the virus, which can generate new changes.

Pharmacists are already carrying out studies to measure whether immunizations are effective against the variant. BioNTech and Pfizer, for example, said that three doses of their vaccine neutralized the new variant in a lab test. There is also already an indication of an adapted vaccine for the omicron by March.

Another study, conducted with Janssen, suggested that an extra dose of the vaccine reduces hospitalizations caused by the omicron, reiterating the evidence that booster is essential against the strain.

Even so, WHO experts overseeing coronavirus vaccines said booster shots are not a viable strategy against the pandemic.

According to them, it would be important to develop vaccines that, in addition to preventing severe cases of Covid-19, manage to stop the transmission of the virus to contain “the need for rigorous and large-scale health and social measures”.