CEID Experts Weigh In on Omicron
The first U.S. case of the COVID-19 Omicron variant was reported earlier this week. Given the lingering questions about the spread of Omicron amidst the holiday season, here’s a roundup of what some of our CEID faculty experts had to say:
Dr. Nahid Bhadelia joined Ayman Mohyeldin on MSNBC to discuss the emergence of Omicron and her thoughts on the travel bans that were implemented in response to it.
Dr. David Hamer joined NBC Boston’s weekly COVID Q&A series and said that “the real question is going to be, ‘Is omicron better at transmission than delta is — is it going to displace delta? Or will delta remain the dominant strain that we have to deal with?’ “
Dr. John Connor was featured in WIRED, saying that Omicron “appears to have been caught at the beginning of an upswing, at a time where everybody has been focused on Delta. The nice part about having that information early is that the rest of the world can start examining all the questions that are raised by a new variant: Do our diagnostics still work? Does it look like the immune response generated by vaccines can still neutralize this virus?”
Professor Lauren Sauer spoke on the Bloomberg Surveillance podcast, saying that getting “as many people vaccinated as possible is critical to stopping and slowing down these new variants.”
Dr. Syra Madad contributed to an opinion piece for CNN that states “the Omicron variant is another reminder of the risk we all face when vaccination levels are low throughout the world. Allowing the virus to spread unchecked gives it more opportunities to mutate without the blanket of protection vaccines offer at the community level. Lagging vaccination rates anywhere are a threat everywhere. We can’t afford to face another Delta-like foe. The toll is too great — emotionally, physically, economically and financially.”