![]() Omicron may evade antibodies in test tubes, but vaccine-induced T-cells could still protect us. Indeed, the UK Health Security Agency's latest risk assessment already puts omicron in the red zone for "vaccine-acquired immunity", albeit with a low level of confidence.īut as Dr Muge Cevik, an infectious diseases expert at the University of St Andrews, has pointed out, lab tests are far from conclusive as far as human immunity is concerned. Most experts think the virus will be able to evade vaccine-induced antibodies in the lab. Scientists have been working on this in labs around the world for over a week, and we can expect the first results very shortly. The next big news item around omicron will almost certainly centre on its ability or otherwise to evade vaccine-induced antibodies in laboratory tests. We will find out eventually if the same is true of omicron but it will take more data and more time. The alpha and delta variants turned out to be more deadly than the original Wuhan virus. "We should not be seeing a young child who is moderate to severely symptomatic needing supplementary oxygen or high care intervention. ![]() "We shouldn't be seeing these kinds of numbers this early in the wave. He was a new Covid-19 admission and developed pneumonia," Prof Mathivha told The Telegraph on Friday. ![]() Prof Rudo Mathivha, an intensive care specialist, painted a grim picture from inside Chris Hani Baragwanath Academic Hospital, in the vast Soweto township on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Over the last week, there have been over 1,000 hospital admission in the province – nearly quadruple the number recorded two weeks ago. This is evident from hospital admissions in Gauteng, which have been rising faster than in any previous wave. This remains the case – but the new variant, just like the others before it, can also cause serious disease. Last week, The Telegraph was first to report that GPs in South Africa were seeing many "mild" cases of Covid, which they believed to be caused by omicron. "Urgent questions remain regarding whether omicron is also able to evade vaccine-induced immunity and the potential implications of reduced immunity to infection on protection against severe disease and death." "Population-level evidence suggests that the omicron variant is associated with substantial ability to evade immunity from prior infection," a study published on Thursday noted. It is clear, too, that large numbers of people who have had Covid are being reinfected. The pattern is the same in several different regions, which suggests it is something inherent to the virus is driving it rather than a local oddity in the environment or people's behaviour.
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