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Explainer | Why it’s too early to panic about Omicron and vaccines may protect against the variant after all
- We won’t know whether Omicron evades Covid-19 vaccines for another few weeks as scientists around the world race to find answers
- However, when previous variants have emerged, vaccines have continued to protect against severe disease
Reading Time:4 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
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Researchers around the world are trying to work out whether existing Covid-19 vaccines protect us from the latest variant, Omicron.
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The worst-case scenario is the virus has mutated so much in the crucial parts of its genome that it can escape Covid-19 vaccines designed to protect us from earlier versions of the virus – with devastating consequences globally.
But it’s too soon to panic. And vaccines may end up protecting us against Omicron after all, as they have done with earlier variants.
The World Health Organization (WHO) says it will take us another two to four weeks to figure out what’s going on. Here’s what scientists around the world are racing to find out.
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What do we know about the new coronavirus variant Omicron?
What do we know about the new coronavirus variant Omicron?
Why the concern?
The reason Omicron has caused global alarm is due to the number of new mutations throughout the genome of Sars-CoV-2, the virus that causes Covid-19.
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