The controversy continues regarding the effectiveness of the current vaccines against the new Corona mutant, "Omicron", while the World Health Organization called on the countries of the world to take "reasonable" precautionary measures to contain it.

Today, Tuesday, the Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed his concern that some countries have taken measures that are not based on effective evidence against countries in southern Africa, especially those that quickly reported the mutant Omicron.

Addressing the WHO General Assembly in Geneva, Ghebreyesus said, "We call on all Member States to take reasonable and proportionate measures to reduce risks. We still have more questions than answers about the impact of Omicron on transmission, disease severity, and the efficacy of examinations, treatments and vaccines."

The organization had recommended its member states to take a set of necessary measures to respond to the new mutation, warning that its risks are considered very high given the possibility of its rapid spread.

In turn, the Director of the European Medicines Agency, Emir Cook, said that vaccines specially prepared for the Omicron mutant of the Corona virus can be approved within three to four months if there is a need for it, explaining that the decision on the need to grant additional vaccine doses is up to other bodies.

"If there is a need to change existing vaccines, we may be in a position to approve those vaccines within three to four months," Cook told a European Parliament committee.

Her comments come after the president of the American pharmaceutical company Moderna was quoted as saying that current vaccines may not protect against the mutated Omicron, as Moderna had previously announced that it was working on a vaccine for Omicron, similar to the American company Pfizer.

Emir Kok pointed out that the European Medicines Agency does not yet know whether the current vaccines are still effective against Omicron, and that it will take about two weeks to confirm this.

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Vaccine controversy

And the controversy continues from vaccine producers about the effectiveness of what they produce on the new mutant, with Oxford University saying that there is no evidence so far about the ineffectiveness of these vaccines.

In the latest statements, the Wall Street Journal quoted the founder of the Bionic lab as saying that the vaccinators would be protected from any serious complications if they contracted Omicron.

Stefan Bansel, head of Moderna Laboratories, was pessimistic about the effectiveness of vaccines, telling the Financial Times that data on the effectiveness of current vaccines will be available within the next two weeks, but scientists are not optimistic in this regard.

As for Pfizer, it announced its readiness to produce an effective vaccine against the Omicron mutant within 100 days.

For its part, Russia announced that it is developing a version of “Sputnik-V” targeting Omicron in particular, if the currently available vaccine is not effective, “which is unlikely.”

The new mutant, which was discovered in South Africa last week, has spread to all continents, from Canada to Italy, through Japan, Germany, Spain, Portugal and the United Kingdom, prompting many countries to suspend flights with South Africa and impose preventive measures.

It seems that Europe, which for weeks has become the epicenter of the epidemic, is the continent most affected by Omicron.

For his part, US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned Monday that Omicron could cast a shadow over the economy and inflation, stressing "the risks of a decline in employment and economic activity."

China also admitted Tuesday that Omicron would make it difficult to host the Winter Olympics in February 2022, but confirmed its confidence in the success of the event.