QuickCheck: Will the Omicron variant build herd immunity to Covid-19?

AS MORE and more people are infected with the Omicron Covid-19 variant, it will eventually help build herd immunity to the coronavirus, officially known as SARS-COV-2.

Is this true?

Verdict:

UNCONFIRMED

With milder symptoms and lower mortality rates, Omicron differs from other strains, according to scientific data gathered over a 50 days period after the variant was detected in South Africa and Botswana.

Gert Van Zyl, a professor at the Department of Medical Virology of Stellenbosch University, told Anadolu Agency that Omicron was less deadly than other variants as it caused milder symptoms.

Due to its high transmissibility, it could help build herd immunity as it has been observed in people who previously recovered from the coronavirus, as well as those who had been vaccinated, it Zyl said.

Noting that herd immunity would also affect the course of the pandemic, he said Omicron provided a relatively high immunity against other variants such as Delta.

Though it is unrealistic to think that Omicron will be the last variant to emerge in the pandemic, it can turn into an endemic pattern, he said.

Dr Elizabeth Connick, the chief of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Arizona, says it's too soon to tell.

"That is possible (that Omicron will achieve herd immunity). I would say I am sceptical... we don't have the data yet," she said.

Connick added that by mid-2022, scientists will have more data on how robust the immune response is with Omicron and how much reinfection happens.

Dr Robert Schooley, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of California, San Diego, is also sceptical.

Schooley said it's too soon to make that prediction.

"If you want to wear rose-coloured glasses (and say that) having a transmissible but reasonably less pathogenic virus go through the population can build up a reservoir to make it more difficult for future variants, let's have a conversation about that in June," he said.

References:

1. https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2022/01/14/omicron-could-help-build-herd-immunity-say-virologist

2. https://www.healthline.com/health-news/is-everyone-eventually-going-to-get-the-omicron-variant#Will-we-all-get-Covid-19?