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Andy Slavitt on omicron Covid variant, vaccines

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A new variant of omicron Covid poses greater risks to the unvaccinated, and there are reasons to believe current vaccines will be effective. This was according to a White House adviser.

Andy Slavitt, CNBC’s correspondent for “What We Know for Certain is That It Is a Dangerous Variant for People Who Have Not Been Vaccinated” said that “We know for certain it is dangerous variant.”Squawk Box Asia.”

“What we have to get to learn is whether or not omicron — how it spreads in an environment where delta is strong,” he said.

Slavitt previously served as a senior advisorThe President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team and ran the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services under the Obama administration.

We know a lot about the omicron

South African scientists were the first to identify this strain of omicron. has been detected in several countriesThe United States, Australia, Canada, and Germany are all included.

Health experts are concerned about the omicron variant’s transmissibility given its unusual constellation of mutations and profile that differs from previous variants of concern. Researchers continue to investigate how vaccines can protect people from severe diseases caused by this new strain.

CNBC’s Slavitt stated that “I believe we have strong reason to believe the vaccines can be effective, even if they are not as effective” But pharma is also returning to the drawing boards.”

Covid vaccine makers PfizerBioNTechModernaJohnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca said they are investigating and testing the omicron variant.

Slavitt it is possible that there would be updated vaccines available, if needed, in the next several months, before the omicron variant starts to spread meaningfully.

The main issue facing the world today is vaccine inequality. Information compiled by Our World In Data showed just around 44% of the world population has been fully vaccinated against Covid-19. Only a few people from low-income nations have had at least one dose.

Slavitt said that it’s still too early for us to know how Omicron will compare with the lethal Delta strain.

We will reach a stage where we can replace delta with a more benign variant, which isn’t likely to be fatal or that can easily be managed with medicine. That would be an exciting day for the pandemic. “If it doesn’t with omicron it will probably happen now,” he stated, noting that this scenario could make Covid look more like the common cold.

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