Boston University
Omicron
COVID-19
The World Health Organization
mutations.“It’s
Johns Hopkins University
IHU
WHO
U.S.“I
the Centre for Global Health Research
St. Michael's Hospital
the Institute for Molecular Virology
the University of Minnesota
on.”———The Associated Press Health
Science Department
the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education
AP
Leonardo Martinez
Stuart Campbell Ray
Anne Thomas
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
Prabhat Jha
Louis Mansky
Greek
COVID-19
Africa
Asia
Latin America
No matching tags
France
Westerly
Rhode Island
the United States
U.S.
Toronto
No matching tags
Experts don’t know what the next variants will look like or how they might shape the pandemic, but they say there’s no guarantee the sequels of omicron will cause milder illness or that existing vaccines will work against them.They urge wider vaccination now, while today's shots still work."The faster omicron spreads, the more opportunities there are for mutation, potentially leading to more variants,” Leonardo Martinez, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Boston University, said.Since it emerged in mid-November, omicron has raced across the globe like fire through dry grass. The World Health Organization reported a record 15 million new COVID-19 cases for the week of Jan. 3-9, a 55% increase from the previous week.Along with keeping comparatively healthy people out of work and school, the ease with which the variant spreads increases the odds the virus will infect and linger inside people with weakened immune systems - giving it more time to develop potent mutations.“It’s the longer, persistent infections that seem to be the most likely breeding grounds for new variants,” said Dr. Stuart Campbell Ray, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University.
As said here by LAURA UNGAR AP Science Writer