How big a threat is the Omicron variant of coronavirus? Here’s what we know
LA TimesA medical staff member prepares the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca. “If you look at the pattern of what’s going on right now in southern Africa — particularly in South Africa — when you have a spike of infections, they are very heavily weighted toward this new variant, the Omicron,” Fauci said. “And, therefore, you have to presume that it has a good degree of transmissibility advantage.” In another interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Fauci said Omicron’s sudden appearance in South Africa was accompanied by a big spike in cases, following a time of low infection levels. Officials were worried many months ago about the Beta variant, but in the U.S., Beta “never really took off because Delta was so incredibly effective at spreading that it couldn’t compete,” Collins said. A number of vaccine experts “feel reasonably confident that three doses of vaccine is going to be protective.” Gottlieb said there could be a situation in which lab tests show that blood plasma from those with protection from COVID-19 and exposed to the Omicron variant may suggest that “the neutralization against this virus decline substantially” — which, at first glance, would seem discouraging.