Thread by @AndyKimNJ

There is a lot we don’t know yet about Omicron, but below is everything I’ve been able to pull together in one place. What we see is concerning but no definitive answer yet about potential to become more transmissible or reduce vaccine effectiveness. Here is what we know…THREAD

Where did Omicron come from? WHO was just notified about the variant 4 days ago (Nov 24). The first known confirmed infection was from a specimen collected on Nov 9 in South Africa. Linked is the official WHO announcement of the variant with details.2/14
who.int/news/item/26-1…

What are major concerns? This article frames 3 things we still need to know.
1)how quickly it spreads
2)if it’s capable of causing more serious disease
3)whether it might circumvent immune protection from previous infections or from vaccine/treatment.3/14
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

What we know so far: WHO says “Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant.” Omicron is the most mutated variant yet with over 50 mutations. In particular there are many mutations in regions of spike protein, which is concerning because…4/14

Vaccines gain effectiveness by teaching body to fight against Covid spikeprotein. As Omicron has many mutations with spikeprotein, concerns arise about whether antibodies can respond, and therefore potentially dampening immune response/vaccine potency.5/14
cdc.gov/media/releases…

No evidence yet of decreased immune response and we should know more in a few days. @ashishkjha says highly unlikely vaccine will be rendered useless. Instead "question is, is there a tiny hit to vaccine efficacy, or is there a large hit?”
Fauci laid out what happens next...6/14

Fauci said“What you need to do, is you need to get that particular sequence of the virus, put it in a form in the lab where you can actually test the different antibodies, so you can have a prediction that it might evade, or you can actually prove it”7/14
cnn.com/2021/11/26/hea…

Do vaccines provide protection from Omicron?
This article from Nature provides good details of what we know so far publicly about Omicron. Summary below…8/14
nature.com/articles/d4158…

Is Omicron more severe than Delta or other variants?
We don’t know yet. There have been breakthrough infections in South Africa among people who have received the J&J, Pfizer–BioNTech and Oxford–AstraZeneca vaccines. Two in Hong Kong reportedly had Pfizer vaccine.9/14

From this good summary, Sharon Peacock, who did COVID genetic sequencing in UK, said the data so far suggests mutations "consistent with enhanced transmissibility," but said that "the significance of many of the mutations is still not known."”10/14
abc7chicago.com/what-is-omicro…

Where is Omicron? As of last night there were no detected cases of omicron in the US, though Dr Fauci said he would not be surprised if it was already here given the spread seen in multiple continents already.11/14
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Cases have been identified in South Africa, Botswana, Belgium, Israel, Hong Kong, UK and more are expected as testing for the variant ramps up.12/14 abcnews.go.com/Health/live-up…

Where is the US travel ban in effect? So far. South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Mozambique and Malawi, administration officials. This ban does not apply to American citizens and lawful permanent residents.13/14
reuters.com/world/us/us-im…

We will know more about Omicron in coming days and I will keep you posted on anything I learn. In meantime, practice safe measures and consider getting vaccinated if you haven’t yet or get a booster. I just got my booster.We cannot fight this virus without collective action. END