“There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level. . . we had with [the] Delta [variant]”, Bancel said in an interview with the Financial Times published on Tuesday. I think it will be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for data. But all the scientists I talked to… said, ‘This isn’t going to be good’. “
A lot is still unknown about the Omicron variant, but scientists are racing to determine its severity, transmissibility, and whether it evades current vaccines.
Moderna’s Bancel said in a statement last week that the mutations in the Omicron variant were “concerning”, adding that the company was “moving as quickly as possible to execute our strategy to address this variant.”
The world has moved to a “change holding model, for greater clarity on [how] Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst for Asia Pacific at Oanda, wrote in a research note on Tuesday.
He pointed out that stocks fell in South Korea after the government there shelved plans to ease Covid-19 restrictions, “emphasizing again what is really driving the market right now. “
Meanwhile, Japan on Tuesday confirmed its first case of the Omicron variant.
Halley added: “The fact that markets haven’t completely eliminated Friday’s woes suggests at least some caution remains.
Oil prices are also sliding, after collapsing on Friday on concerns that the variant will hit energy demand by eating into the amount of people driving and flying. Both Brent crude, the global benchmark, and West Texas Intermediate, the US benchmark, fell about 2% to trade below $72 and $69 a barrel, respectively.
– CNN’s Junko Ogura contributed to this report.
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