There is “no answer yet“To the question of whether the Omicron variant of the coronavirus which is sweeping the United States and Europe requires a suitable vaccine, the director of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said on Tuesday, December 21.
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“Let me stress that there is not yet an answer to the question of whether we will need a suitable vaccine, with a different composition, to fight this variant or any other.Emer Cooke said at a press conference. “We need more data on the impact of the variant on the efficacy of approved vaccines, and to gather more evidenceOf the action of current vaccines, to prevent severe or milder forms of the disease as well as hospitalizations and deaths, she added.
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Emer Cooke however stressed that with five vaccines and six drugs against Covid-19, “we are in a much stronger position than last year“. “We have a lot of additional tools at our disposal“, She added, while the European Union authorized Monday the use of a fifth vaccine against Covid, that of the American Novavax in the wake of the green light given by the EMA.
The new variant of the coronavirus is spreading at lightning speed in the United States where it is now dominant, as well as in Europe, particularly in the United Kingdom.