New COVID - 19 variant raises concerns over vaccines
It could take weeks for scientists to fully understand the variant's mutations and whether existing vaccines and treatments are effective against it. Omicron is the fifth variant of concern designated by the WHO.
The UK Health Security Agency said that the variant has a spike protein that is dramatically different from the one in the original coronaviruses that are used in vaccines, raising concerns about how current vaccines will fare.
This new variant of the COVID 19 virus is very worrying. Lawrence Young, a virologist at Britain's University of Warwick, said it was the most heavily mutated version of the virus we've seen to date.
Some of the mutations that are similar to changes we've seen in other variants of concern are associated with enhanced transmissibility and partial resistance to immunity induced by vaccination or natural infection. Financial markets, particularly stocks of airlines and others in the travel sector, and oil, which tumbled by about US $10 a barrel, were hit by those worries.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 2.5 per cent, its worst day since October 2020, and European stocks had their worst day in 17 months.
Cruise operators Carnival Corp, Royal Caribbean Cruises and Norwegian Cruise Line plunged more than 10 per cent each, while shares in American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines fell almost as much.
Several other countries including India, Japan, Israel, Turkey, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates have tightened travel restrictions.
The WHO - experts discussed on Friday the risks that the variant called B. 529, presents - had warned against travel curbs for now.
The WHO's emergencies director Mike Ryan said it is important that there are no knee-jerk responses here. He praises South Africa's public health institutions for picking up the new variant of the coronavirus that causes COVID - 19.
Richard Lessells, a South Africa-based infectious disease expert, expressed frustration at travel bans, saying that the focus should be on getting more people vaccinated in places that have struggled to access sufficient shots.
This is why we talked about the risk of vaccine apartheid. He told Reuters that the virus can evolve in the absence of adequate levels of vaccination.
More than 7 per cent of people in low-income countries have received their first COVID-19 shot, according to medical and human rights groups. Many developed nations are giving third-dose boosters.
In the two years since it was first identified in central China, the coronaviruses have swept the world, infecting 260 million people and killing 5.4 million.
One epidemiologist in Hong Kong said it may be too late to tighten travel curbs against the latest variant.
It is likely that this virus is already in other places. It's going to be too late if we shut the door now, said Ben Cowling, a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.
Brazilian health regulator Anvisa recommended that travel be restricted from some African countries, but President Jair Bolsonaro appeared to dismiss such measures.
Bolsonaro has been widely criticised by public health experts for his management of the pandemic, railing against lockdowns and choosing not to get vaccinated. Brazil has the second-highest death toll from the disease, behind only the United States.
The new variant comes as Europe and the United States enter winter, with more people gathering indoors in the run-up to Christmas, providing a breeding ground for infection.
Friday marked the beginning of the holiday shopping period in the United States, but stores were less crowded than in years past.
On Black Friday, a Realtor, Kelsey Hupp, 36, was at Macy's department store in downtown Chicago.
Chicago is masked and vaccinated. She said I got my booster so I'm not too concerned about it.