Kai KupferschmidtVerified account

“Certain features of #omicron, including its global spread and large number of mutations, suggest it could have a major impact on the course of the pandemic”, says @drtedros in @WHO presser. "Exactly what that impact will be is still difficult to know. "

"We're now starting to see a consistent picture of rapid increase in transmission”, says @drtedros. "Although for now the exact rate of increase relative to other variants remains difficult to quantify."

"In South Africa, the number of omicron cases is increasing quickly”, says @DrTedros. "However, omicron was detected when transmission of Delta was very low, so it had little competition."

"It will therefore be important to monitor carefully what happens around the world to understand whether Omicron can outcompete Delta”, says @DrTedros. "For that reason, we call on all countries to increase surveillance, testing and sequencing. "

“Emerging data from South Africa suggest increased risk of reinfection with Omicron but more data are needed to draw firmer conclusions”, says @DrTedros. "There is also some evidence that Omicron causes milder disease than delta. But again, it's still too early to be definitive."

“Any complacency now will cost lives”, says @DrTedros. "Many of those who don't die could be left battling long COVID or post COVID condition - this is with debilitating, lingering symptoms that we're only beginning to understand."

"New data are emerging every day, but scientists need time to complete studies and interpret the results”, says @DrTedros. "We must be careful about drawing firm conclusions until we have a more complete picture."

“We're not defenseless against Omicron or delta. The steps countries take today, and in the coming days and weeks will determine how Omicron unfolds”, says @DrTedros.

"If countries wait until their hospitals start, start to fill up, it's too late”, says @DrTedros. "Don't wait. Act. Now. We are running out of ways to say this. But we will keep saying it. All of us, every government and every individual must use all the tools we have right now."

Says he is pleased that France and Switzerland have lifted their travel bans on Southern African countries. "I urge other countries to follow their lead. To France and Switzerland: Merci beaucoup."

“Please get vaccinated if you can”, says @DrTedros. "We can save lives from Delta right now. We can prevent omicron becoming a global crisis right now. We can prevent other variants emerging right now. This virus is changing, but our collective resolve must not"

.@HelenBranswell asks if WHO is rethinking opposition to boosters in light of immune escape potential of omicron. "I think it's premature to conclude that this reduction in neutralizing activity would result in a significant reduction in vaccine effectiveness”, says @doctorsoumya

“What we really need now is a coordinated research effort and not jumping to conclusions on you know, study by study”, says @doctorsoumya. “We are going to see a couple of weeks of every day, new information new studies. One study is not going to really prove anything."

I asked about data on secondary attack rates and transmissibility. First data should come Friday, says @mvankerkhove. Will compare how many people in a household are infected from one infected individual with omicron compared to delta.

“Some of the early data may be a little bit messy in the sense that we won't be able to control for all of the factors and those early estimates of a secondary attack rate may change”, says @mvankerkhove. Says with delta the estimates declined as more data came available.

Early data "is all pointing to a virus that's efficiently transmitting and probably more efficiently transmitting even than the Delta variant”, says @DrMikeRyan. "But that does not mean that the virus is unstoppable."

“It doesn't mean that the virus has become invincible”, says @DrMikeRyan. "It's just become fitter, better adapted to exploiting the contacts and the connections between us. And therefore, we have to double down ... and use the measures at our disposal that we already have"

Even milder variants are dangerous if they are more transmissible , says @DrMikeRyan “If they're allowed to spread unchecked, even though they're not individually more virulent or lethal, they just generate more cases, they put pressure on the health system and more people die"

“We can maximize the chance that anyone with severe illness has for survival by ensuring we protect the health system, we protect the most vulnerable”, says @DrMikeRyan. "And that's what we're saying: Protect yourself. Protect each other. Get vaccinated."

What needs to be done? "Number one, we have to look at increasing vaccination coverage in people who are at risk so that we reduce hospitalizations, we reduce morbidity and mortality and deaths”, says @mvankerkhove.

“We also have to reduce transmission. We cannot only focus on vaccination coverage. You hear us say a lot 'vaccines and' not 'vaccines only’”, says @mvankerkhove.

And, of course, "this is a global problem. And global problems need global solutions”, says @mvankerkhove. "We can't only fight this virus in some countries, while others are fighting with their hands tied behind their back.

“No matter which way you look at it, primary doses always outperform booster doses for people who are at risk”, says @Kate_L_OBrien. "The primary attention here has to be on assuring that everybody who has not yet had a primary series of vaccination has access to that vaccine."

“The focus here is is firmly on the protection against hospitalization, severe disease and death”, says @Kate_L_OBrien. “Primary doses to those who have not yet been vaccinated really has to be the priority. We'll continue watching the evidence very, very carefully."

Q about role of industry. "We want to see good decisions made, based on good data, based on good science. We want that to happen fast”, says @DrMikeRyan. "But we need publicly driven decision making regarding any shifts or changes to vaccine development or production.

"Covid19 is going to be around for a good while longer, and other variants may emerge”, says @DrMikeRyan. "We need a systematic process of working with industry so we don't have a chaos, a circus of everyone doing what they think they should do and nothing being coordinated."