MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. The existing vaccines against the novel coronavirus infection will provide protection from the severe forms of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant, the chief of the Gamaleya Center’s pathogenic organisms population diversity mechanisms laboratory, Vladimir Gushchin, said on Monday.
"We can be certain that the vaccines will keep working and protecting from the severe forms of the disease, the way it happened to all other previous variants of the virus, and this is most important," Gushchin told the Rossiya-24 round-the-clock TV news channel in an interview.
Asked if the anti-COVID vaccines’ makeup should be adjusted in the wake of Omicron’s emergence Gushchin said that it would be possible to say something definite after the virus had been studied well enough.
"An answer to this question will be possible only after experimental research. I reckon that the first results will be available to the scientific community in 3-4 weeks’ time. It will be possible to rely on them. For now we are unable to say to what extent this will be required," he explained.
"If it is true that the virus has undergone several mutations, the first question that instantly comes to mind is how this affected the effectiveness of vaccines, because certain mutations are capable of reducing the ability to neutralize the virus. We know this from the experience of handling previous strains. Although there is a certain decline in effectiveness in relation to some variants, the anti-bodies’ protective function does not disappear altogether," Gushchin said.
Last week, the WHO named a newly-discovered variant of the novel coronavirus Omicron. This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which have caused the WHO’s concern. Several changes in the spike protein are potentially capable of making it harder for antibodies to neutralize the pathogen and reducing the effectiveness of vaccines. Also, according to preliminary estimates this variant as highly contagious. A number of countries have suspended air links with countries in Southern Africa as a precaution.