The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that public health officials don’t yet know how well COVID-19 vaccines will work against the omicron variant.
“We know it has many mutations, more mutations than prior variants, and many of those mutations have been associated with more transmissible variants with evasion of some of our therapeutics and potentially invasion — evasion of some of our immunity, and that’s what we’re watching really carefully,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on ABC’s “This Week.” “What we don’t yet know is how transmissible it will be, how well our vaccines will work, whether it will lead to more severe disease.”
Dr. Walensky said she was aware of several dozen cases of the omicron variant across “about 15 states” as of Saturday night, but that 99.9% of the 90,000 to 100,000 COVID cases discovered daily in the U.S. are the delta variant.
She said the government remains hopeful that existing vaccines will keep people infected with omicron out of the hospital in the months to come.
“We know from a vaccine standpoint that the more mutations a single variant has, the more immunity you really need to have in order to combat that variant, which is why right now we’re really pushing to get more people vaccinated and more people boosted to really boost that immunity in every single individual,” Dr. Walensky said. “We’re really hopeful that our vaccines will work in a way that even if they don’t prevent disease entirely, prevent infection entirely, that they can work to prevent severe disease and keep people out of the hospital.”
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told CBS on Sunday that a new case of the omicron variant in his state affected an elderly person who was immunized.
“I know in the release your office put out it did indicate the individual was inoculated — did he receive, or she receive, a booster shot?” asked CBS’ Margaret Brennan.
“I’m not sure about the booster shot; I do know that the patient was immunized and over the age of 60,” said Mr. Lamont. “I think sometimes there’s too much emphasis upon the infection. The good news is — on the vaccination — in this case, the patient is at home resting peacefully and no need to go to the hospital. And that’s one of the key things that the vaccines we know are effective at.”
For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that public health officials don’t yet know how well COVID-19 vaccines will work against the omicron variant. “We know it has many mutations, more mutations than prior variants, and many of those mutations have been associated with more transmissible variants with evasion of some of our therapeutics and potentially invasion — evasion of some of our immunity, and that’s what we’re watching really carefully,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said on ABC’s “This Week.” “What we don’t yet know is how transmissible it will be, how well our vaccines will work, whether it will lead to more severe disease.” Dr. Walensky said she was aware of several dozen cases of the omicron variant across “about 15 states” as of Saturday night, but that 99.9% of the 90,000 to 100,000 COVID cases discovered daily in the U.S. are the delta variant. She said the government remains hopeful that existing vaccines will keep people infected with omicron out of the hospital in the months to come. “We know from a vaccine standpoint that the more mutations a single variant has, the more immunity you really need to have in order to combat that variant, which is why right now we’re really pushing to get more people vaccinated and more people boosted to really boost that immunity in every single individual,” Dr. Walensky said. “We’re really hopeful that our vaccines will work in a way that even if they don’t prevent disease entirely, prevent infection entirely, that they can work to prevent severe disease and keep people out of the hospital.” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont told CBS on Sunday that a new case of the omicron variant in his state affected an elderly person who was immunized. “I know in the release your office put out it did indicate the individual was inoculated — did he receive, or she receive, a booster shot?” asked CBS’ Margaret Brennan. “I’m not sure about the booster shot; I do know that the patient was immunized and over the age of 60,” said Mr. Lamont. “I think sometimes there’s too much emphasis upon the infection. The good news is — on the vaccination — in this case, the patient is at home resting peacefully and no need to go to the hospital. And that’s one of the key things that the vaccines we know are effective at.” For more information, visit The Washington Times COVID-19 resource page.