A shipment of Covid vaccines sent to Sudan by the COVAX vaccine-sharing initiative, are unloaded in the capital Khartoum, October 6, 2021.
Ebrahim Hamid / AFP
Variant-specific vaccines would undoubtedly increase immunity. But waves of new variants would engulf the population faster than these vaccines could ever be deployed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives a thumbs up signal after receiving his COVID-19 vaccine booster shot at a pharmacy in Ottawa on Jan. 4, 2022.
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Canada’s strategy must include global engagement. Without it, we will be living on borrowed time, waiting for a new variant, a new booster, a new quick fix.
The best way to stop new variants from arising is to increase the proportion of vaccinated individuals while maintaining infection prevention measures like wearing masks and social distancing.
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Even with a variant like Omicron that may be more transmissible than earlier variants, vaccines remain the most effective tool for protection against COVID-19 and for ending the pandemic.
A positive COVID-19 test is the first step in the process.
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A nationwide genomic surveillance system analyzes positive COVID-19 tests to build a picture of which variants are spreading in the population.
Sequencing the genome of a virus gives researchers information on how mutations can affect its transmissibility and virulence.
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For a number of reasons, as time goes on vaccines become less effective. So how do researchers calculate how well vaccines are working?
While people in the wealthy West have had preferred access to multiple rounds of vaccines, vast numbers of people, especially in Africa and on the Indian subcontinent, haven’t received a single dose.
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In places with low vaccination rates, COVID-19 has the chance to linger, and variants develop and travel. Without global vaccine equity, this entirely predictable pattern will repeat itself.
The Omicron variant has been confirmed in all continents except Antarctica.
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One of the ways the Omicron variant is different from other variants is the sheer number of mutations in the spike protein. Does this make it a super-variant?
A researcher works with COVID-19 samples from patients.
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Careful lab work will complement public health data as researchers worldwide focus on omicron, asking questions about contagiousness, severity of disease and whether vaccines hold up against it.
Vaccines are our best chance of overcoming this pandemic.
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The new omicron variant of coronavirus has a number of mutations that may require manufacturers to update vaccines. The unique attributes of mRNA vaccines make updating them fast and easy.
We won’t know whether Omicron evades COVID vaccines for another few weeks. Here’s why.
The omicron variant possesses numerous mutations in the spike protein, the knob-like protrusions (in red) that allow the virus to invade other cells.
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It’s too early to say whether the newly identified omicron variant is going to overtake delta. But particular mutations in the new strain have researchers deeply concerned.
Given the Omicron variant has already spread beyond southern Africa, a ban on travellers from those countries will slow the spread and buy crucial time, but won’t stop this strain in its tracks.
Scientists find variants by sequencing samples from people that have tested positive for the virus.
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Dean Faculty of Health Sciences and Professor of Vaccinology at University of the Witwatersrand; and Director of the SAMRC Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Analytics Research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand