With more than 500 Omicron subvariants and the easing of social distancing measures, the possibilities for the emergence of vaccineevading variants are increasing
EFE/Andre Coelho
THE World Health Organization calculated this week that about 90% of the world’s population has some level of immunity to Covid19, despite warning of the threat of a new variant. According to the directorgeneral of the WHO, humanity is much closer to the end of the emergency phase of the pandemic. The executive also warned that lowering vigilance opens the doors for a new variant of the virus that Ômicron could overcome. There are currently more than 500 subvariants of the omicron and all are highly transferrable. The team of morning paper spoke to infectiologist Raquel Stucchi, who explained how immunization against the coronavirus works. “Do 90% have protection? What does that mean? That 90% of people have already been exposed to the virus, either through the vaccine that provided protection or through the disease. A lot of them had both, got vaccinated and gotten sick, not a great sign. If 90% of people get chickenpox, nobody gets chickenpox twice, but with Covid19 we have seen that is not the case, protection decreases over time. Of much of the protection our organism produces, we still don’t know exactly what role and how much it protects. This just shows that people have already been in contact, but that doesn’t reassure people into believing they are protected and can be careless,” he warned. The specialist also pointed out that the lack of surveillance in trying to block transmission and diagnose new variants puts the population at risk of developing a new variant that escapes the vaccines already in existence. “Even those who have a mild illness, the flu, can also experience consequences in the next six months after infection. It increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Covid19, it’s better not to get it,” he stressed.