National Institutes of Health director Dr. Francis Collins told CNN’s Jim Sciutto on Newsroom on Monday.
“What we do know, it has a lot of mutations, more than 50, which is a new record,” Collins said, when asked about what is currently known about the Omicron variant. “Some of them we have seen before and some we have not seen. So this definitely shows that this is a new virus that we have to take very seriously.
“We were worried that if the mutant protein had a different shape, maybe the antibodies wouldn’t stick well,” he said. “That’s cause for concern.”
Collins made the point that all the earlier variants – all with differences in mutant proteins – responded to vaccines and boosters.
“It’s a very important message that I want people to hear right now,” he said. “In fact, boosters allow your immune system to be more resistant to spike proteins it hasn’t even seen before. So, if you needed one more reason, if you were eligible to buy that booster right away, this would be it. ”
When it comes to contagion, “I think it’s clear from what’s happening in South Africa, that this variant of Omicron spreads quickly,” Collins said, noting that cases of Covid-19 relatively low in South Africa.
“What we don’t know is whether this variant of Omicron will compete with Delta in a country like ours, or whether Delta, because it’s so successful, will basically just put it aside. That’s another unknown,” Collins said.
Remember: Previously, Collins said it was too early to know if the Omicron variant would cause more severe disease.
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