Omicron.. The lack of justice in the distribution of the vaccine threatens the spread of the mutant

An episode of “For the Rest of the Story” program (12/27/2021) discussed the issue of distributing vaccines against the Corona virus around the world, as there is a lack of justice in distributing vaccines between rich and poor countries.

Shaber Madi, professor of vaccinology and director of the respiratory research unit in Johannesburg, confirmed that the mutant Omicron does not respond to vaccines and antibodies, and that in South Africa many people received two doses of Pfizer, and despite that there was an outbreak of the epidemic, and said, "Omicron is not affected by the vaccine."

Madi explained that vaccines do not protect against infection with the Omicron mutant, but they do protect against the deterioration of the health of the person infected with the Coronavirus, and then the need for hospitalization, and revealed that the majority of people who were infected with the mutant in South Africa had slight symptoms, and a small percentage of them were hospitalized and very few of them The people died.

However, Madi spoke about the rapid spread of omicron compared to the previous mutant, and pointed to a rapid increase in the spread of the mutant in South Africa, which also said that in the first three waves, 75% of its population was infected with the virus at some stage, and that a third of the population received at least one dose. of covid-19 vaccines.

On the other hand, the South African professor stressed that the lack of justice in the distribution of vaccines plays a role in the spread of the mutated, but it is not the main factor for that, when the virus moves, there are mutations, and people whose immunity is weak can remain the virus for a long time inside their bodies, up to 6 months, Thus, the virus is efficient in spreading.

As for the former Jordanian Minister of Health, Saad Al-Kharabsheh, he focused during his speech on the “Baqia Story” program on the Arab region, and said that the number of cases infected with the new mutation is still few, and this sample does not enable an investigation process to be carried out on the epidemic and know its epidemiological characteristics.

Al-Kharabsheh - a senior consultant in epidemiology - added that there will be no safe area as long as everyone is not safe, and that vaccination for everyone is what will prevent the spread of the epidemic, noting that the world will not get rid of mutants except with a fair distribution of the vaccine, expressing his belief that the situation of countries The Arab countries, especially the Gulf countries, in terms of vaccination are relatively better compared to the rest of the developing countries.

The program received a special video post sent by Dr. Muhammad Al-Awrani, a specialist in virology and epidemiology, residing in the US state of Oklahoma, in which he revealed that it is too early to judge the severity of the mutated Omercon, based on the cases that appeared in America.

Variation in vaccination

Omicron is a new mutant of the Corona virus, which appeared recently in South Africa on November 18, 2021, after several mutagens that appeared in other countries, such as “Delta”, “Alpha” and “Beta”.

According to epidemiologists, the new strain may return the world to square one in its struggle with the pandemic.

And the American Wall Street Journal linked the emergence of the new mutation and lower vaccination rates in poor countries.

And the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, had revealed that more than 80% of vaccines in the world were sent to the countries of the Group of Twenty, while poor countries - mostly in Africa - received only a small percentage.

Abdul Karim Quziez - an expert in epidemiology at the British King's University says that the presence of low vaccination rates in many countries poses a real threat, because these countries may turn into living and renewable repositories of the virus, which may enable it to produce new mutations.

Statistical figures from Oxford University show a great discrepancy in vaccination rates between countries of the world, while the proportion of immunized people in rich countries exceeded the 50% threshold of the total population, the percentage drops to less than 5% in many countries of the world.

The episode "For the rest of the story" focused on the shortage of vaccination doses in some countries compared to the number of their population, such as Sudan, Syria and Ethiopia.

Yasser Najib, head of the technical committee of the "Syria Vaccine" team in Idlib, revealed that the vaccine arrived late in Syria, and promises were made to provide about 300,000 doses, then the number changed to about 130,000 doses, then settled on about 53,800 doses, and said that if there is still Vaccination is at the same rate. It will take Syria years to reach 70% of the community's vaccination rate.

Ethiopia ranks as one of the world's least polluted countries, according to World Health Organization statistics.