The world waits for vaccine makers to get ready for Omicron

As the new Covid strain, Omicron spreads worldwide, everybody has hope in the production of effective shots against the variant.

On Tuesday morning, Global market sentiment fell in the middle of fears that the current vaccine could have fewer effects against the new strain – Omicron. On Friday, Omicron was first identified and designated as a variant of concern in South Africa by the World Health Organization.

The apparent reversal for U.S. and European stock futures came after Stephane Bancel, Moderna CEO, told the Financial Times that, in his opinion, current vaccines might be less effective against the Omicron variant.

On Monday, Bancel told CNBC that the process of creating an effective vaccine targeting the new strain could take months to develop and ship. He added that it would take more than two weeks to discover more about the mutations. They still need to uncover the effectiveness of the current vaccines.

The Omicron strain has over 35 mutations. According to the WHO, some of the mutations are highly transmissive and lower antibody protection.

However, on Monday, the UN health agency repeated that there are still significant uncertainties regarding the new strain.

At the moment, experts don’t know how transmissible the new variant is. Also, there is doubt over how existing vaccines protect against the severity of illness, transmission, and death. And finally, it is unknown if the variant produces more acute symptoms.

The World Health Organization said that the process would take weeks to learn how the variant might influence vaccines. As well as uncover its diagnostics and therapeutics.

Tweaks

The world right now is anxious while waiting experts attempt to determine the Omicron variant’s risks.

Experts examine every new variant to see whether current vaccines are helpful against it. If they find out that the current vaccines are ineffective, they must prepare a new vaccine to target the new strain.

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