Omicron

The world is now focusing on the Omicron variant.

On the road to opening up, the much more contagious Omicron variant of Covid-19 casts a shadow over a positive future of reopening. At this moment, we know too little about whether Omicron will cause serious disease among the infected. We are not sure whether the vaccinated will respond with only mild symptoms. We do not know whether the existing vaccines will prevent the spread of the virus and protect us. Too little is known at this moment.

However Victorian CHO professor Brett Sutton is right in telling us that we are not like at the start of the pandemic. We have over 90% Australians vaccinated and speeding up to a greater proportion of fully vaccinated will help us to fight the battle with Omicron. At this moment, we need to prevent the Omicron to land in Australia and getting into the community. Possibly masks, social distancing, and disinfectants will help us to get further protection. That is the reality for a Covid-normal society.

On the other hand, Omicron reminds us that we are not alone. We need the whole world to be vaccinated so that virus will not be replicated and mutated to spread. At present, only the developed worlds are vaccinated and practically poor countries are still waiting for vaccines to be donated and used. As a result, the chance for the Covid virus to be developed into threatening and more contagious variants is high. This warning by WHO at the beginning of the pandemic is realised in the case of Omicron.

We must admit that this war is a war of the whole world. Nobody on the earth will be safe until everybody is protected. It is time for the whole world need to re-think about waiving of royalty for vaccine developers. AstraZeneca has been marketed with this principle in its first year of marketing and is now the most widely used vaccine in the world. Will others follow suit?

More than that, will COVAX step up its donation program so that the vaccines will be supplied rapidly to everybody around the world?

Raymond Chow
Publisher, BlessingCALD