The Omicron variant, a new variant of COVID-19, has been discovered, but the parameters of its beginning are unknown. Numbers have grown vastly in a matter of a month, with over 50 million cases across the US. The Netherlands says the variant had been in its borders before South Africa had its panic and Europe has a vast case growth but no matter of timing.
Kristian Andersen, an infectious disease researcher, discovered Omicron to have emerged somewhere from September to October, meaning its spread could be across the world but from that, it is also believed that it could be a slower spreading disease than its appearance.
With Omicron being a new differently coded strand of COVID-19, it leaves the question of, “is the vaccine still effective?”
"Importantly, protection against severe disease is much higher," Marm Kilpatrick, COVID and vaccines data researcher, stated.
This means that having the vaccine is still more protective than not having it because the variant has not become more resistant to the vaccine.
Overall, Omicron is not the greatest of news but doing the regular routine of sanitizing and keeping distance should do the same as before, keeping up with COVID vaccine shots also should keep you safer against the variant.
