Omicron: dangerousness, contagiousness ... what scientists are trying to discover

Afsané Sabouhi, with AFP 13:55, November 29, 2021

Fighting action against the Omicron variant.

Eight potential cases of the new variant have been detected in France and there is little doubt that France will be affected, like its neighbors, by a wave of this new variant of Covid-19.

This Monday morning, the Scientific Council communicated on this new player which risks disrupting the end of the year.

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Increased contagiousness

The Scientific Council therefore considered that the Omicron variant was more transmissible than the Delta variant. The organization indicated that it was also very possible that it escapes certain antibodies and therefore that it leads to a decrease in vaccine effectiveness. Good news though: Omicron is very well detected by PCR and antigen tests. For the Scientific Council, the threat should not be mistaken: the variant which circulates the most and which risks sending the French to hospital is the Delta variant.

"When this virus will arrive in Europe and France, it will be confronted with a Delta wave which is extremely active and a population which is also vaccinated in its vast majority. It is really the Delta variant which is our concern. And in any case, the fight against this variant is at the same time a fight against the Omicron variant ", affirmed the epidemiologist and member of the Scientific Council Arnaud Fontanet.

Regarding the eight suspected cases of the Omicron variant in France, the sequencing results will arrive on Monday or Tuesday.

Last week, 3,000 suspected cases were identified in France, especially in Mayotte and Reunion.

But they have all been challenged, meaning that scientists know that it is neither the Delta variant nor Omicron.

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"A very high risk" according to the WHO

The new Omicron variant of the coronavirus presents "a very high risk" at the global level, warned the WHO on Monday, while stressing the many uncertainties which still surround the dangerousness and the transmissibility of the variant.

"Given the mutations that could confer escape potential to the immune response, as well as possibly give an advantage in terms of transmissibility, the likelihood of Omicron spreading globally is high," said the organization as the The list of the number of countries where it is detected continues to grow, after the first cases detected in southern Africa in November.

The WHO emphasizes, however, that many unknowns remain about this variant: its contagiousness, whether it is inherent in the mutations observed or whether it is due to the fact that this variant is better able to escape the immune response;

the level of protection conferred by existing anti-Covid vaccines in terms of contagiousness and severity of the disease;

and whether this variant causes more severe symptoms.