Experts say that the toxicity of Omikejong is weaker, and the possibility of recombination of the new strain of "Demickron" is small

At the beginning of the new year, "Omi kerong" plunged the world into a new crisis. Over the past weekend, more than 4,000 flight cancellations were made globally due to Omi kerong, more than half of which were in the United States. According to global surveillance data, an average of more than 1 million new confirmed cases of COVID-19 were detected per day over the past week.

"Omiljung" is spreading at a high speed in the United States, and last week the number of new confirmed cases in the United States continued to hit a new high, with more than 386,000 new infections reported on Friday, and the number of new confirmed cases in France in a single day also exceeded 200,000 for several consecutive days.

Global public health experts, including WHO, have warned that drastic measures should be taken to prevent the accelerated spread of the virus. Recently, French Health Minister Olivier Véran said that in France, the proportion of close contacts may reach 10%. But he predicted: "This could be the last wave of the outbreak in France." ”

The optimism of the French health minister comes from the views of pasteur epidemiologists at the country's virology institute. On Sunday, Professor Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur in France and a member of the Scientific Committee, made it clear: "Omilon is a less toxic variant and produces less severe COVID-19 disease than the Delta variant." ”

This is also the first time that the world's top virological research institutes have made a clear statement on the toxicity of the Ami kerong virus strain. The Pasteur Institute estimates that the severe illness caused by Aumequeron can be reduced by 50% to 80% compared to Delta, and the UK Health and Safety Agency also says that the risk of infection with Opricron in intensive care is reduced by 31% to 45% compared to cases infected with Delta.

In view of the highly contagious nature of Aumecreon, Fontane believes that this may not be that Aumechjong itself is more contagious, but that it evades the immune protection of vaccines. But does this mean that the virus is resistant to vaccines? Fontaine said this was not the case.

He stressed: "This immune evasion ability of Omi kerong seems to be moving in the direction of a large number of mild diseases, and the vaccine is still very well protected against the severe diseases caused by the new crown virus, and after receiving boosters, the protection rate can reach 80% to 90%." ”

Israel, the world's leading vaccination rate, has approved a fourth dose of booster vaccine for people over 60 years of age and at high risk, and expects to achieve herd immunity in the latest wave of outbreaks. Israel is also the first country in the world to start a fourth dose vaccination program.

Nachman Ash, director general of Israel's ministry of health, said on Sunday that Israel expected to achieve herd immunity as the number of COVID-19 cases caused by Ami Kerong increased. However, he stressed that Israel does not want to achieve herd immunity by increasing the number of cases of new crown infection, but wants to be vaccinated by more people. According to the Israeli Ministry of Health, 60% of Israelis have been vaccinated with two or more doses.

In India, COVID-19 cases are also surging. Over the past Saturday, India reported 22,775 new confirmed cases of COVID-19. Currently, the Delta variant is still the dominant epidemic strain in India.

However, Indian virus experts recently warned of the risk of Delta merging the Olmiqueron strain, creating a new variant, Delmicron, even though the likelihood of such a combined mutation is small.

Last month, vaccine maker Moderna warned that the simultaneous spread of Olmiqueron and Delta could lead to a person being infected with two strains at the same time, and the possibility that both strains could mutate into a "super variant" could be ruled out.

Dr Paul Burton, Moderna's chief medical officer, said: "Two strains in the same host are likely to exchange genes and trigger more dangerous mutations. ”

A virus researcher told the first financial reporter that the possibility of such a "reorganization event" is not ruled out, but it requires very special conditions and coincidence of events to occur, and these events are generally difficult to control or predict.