CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Editor's Note: The main video in this story is from a November 2021 story on doctors urging those to not wait to get the booster shot.
The U.S. recorded its first confirmed case of the omicron variant Wednesday in a vaccinated traveler. Researchers around the world are trying to understand the new variant and are evaluating its transmissibility, severity of infection, and effectiveness of treatments.
We spoke to UNC Health Experts on the omicron variant to answer some of your looming questions.
Question: Why is this variant standing out right now? Why should we be concerned about this one?
“We don’t want to panic. It doesn’t help to panic. It does allow us to prepare and get motivated even here in North Carolina,” said Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases Dr. David Wohl.
Question: Would we even be seeing omicron if booster shots were delivered as first or second doses in the developing world?
“I am a firm believer in having your cake and eating it too and I don’t see why given how much vaccines are out there, how many different types of vaccines are out there that we couldn’t have more vaccination in other parts of the world,” Wohl said.
Question: What vaccine is more effective?
“We don’t know the full extent of protection but I will say in previous concerns about variants higher levels of an antibody provided better protection even against variants that had some diminished variant protection as far as the vaccines are concerned,” Wohl said.
Wohl continued by addressing vaccines as the best protection rather than no protection.
“So higher antibody levels and that’s why we do boosting. It helped protect against Delta even though the vaccines were developed for another strain that was very different than Delta."
Question: How did it mutate and can new treatments be combined to combat it?
“Viruses evolved under pressure otherwise they can just continue to be what they were just a wild virus that was circulating. So, the pressure exerted on this particular variant was likely somebody’s immune system. The person's antibodies were fighting against this variant or its predecessor and this evolved to get around that immunity and it probably was not a vaccinated person,” Wohl said.
Question: What do we need as we continue to learn more about these mutations?
“It may be that we need more pan variant vaccination that we can’t be as specific. We may need more broadly neutralizing antibodies and it could be that there’s a cocktail of different types of vaccines put into one vaccine to cover anticipated mutations. But it’s very hard to predict what mutations may evolve in the world,” Wohl said.
Question: What is your message to families as we get closer to more family gatherings?
“We need to be careful. I think we were getting a little complacent. We were letting our guard down. Many of us said, 'Well, we are vaccinated. We’ve been boosted. I can gather with other people.' So, this will help some people really double down on the mitigations and strategies that we know work,” said Wohl.