The highly mutated variant caused global panic when it emerged last month.
The Hague, Netherlands:
The European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Thursday that Omicron cases so far appeared to be “mostly mild”, but warned that it was still investigating whether the variant could cause severe illness. Are not.
Marco Cavaleri, head of the EMA, said: “The cases are mostly mild, however we need to gather more evidence to determine if the spectrum of disease severity caused by Omicron differs (from) compared to all variants that have circulated to date or not. on biological health threats and vaccine strategies.
The highly mutated variant sparked global panic when it emerged last month, sparking fears it could be more contagious, cause more severe illness or evade a vaccine.
The World Health Organization said this week, early signs suggest it may actually be more infectious.
But vaccine makers Pfizer/BioNTech say their third shot provides effective protection against the variant, and they are developing an Omicron-specific shot that will be ready by March 2022.
Cavaleri said it’s too early to comment on how well the vaccine works against Omicron.
“At this stage, we do not have enough data on the impact of this variant on the efficacy of an approved vaccine, but we are constantly scanning the horizon for evidence,” he said. on this issue.
The EMA has so far approved four Covid vaccines: Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca. It also gave the green light to Merck’s anti-Covid pill, hailed as a breakthrough treatment because it can be taken at home.
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