Will COVID-19 booster shots protect against the Omicron variant? Experts undecided
Global News
South African scientists first identified the variant earlier this week after a sudden, exponential rise in cases in the country.
As countries race to stem the spread of the COVID-19 Omicron variant, questions are swirling over whether Canada’s rollout of vaccine boosters should be sped up to safeguard against its impending spread.
The new variant, declared Friday by the World Health Organization as the novel coronavirus’s fifth variant of concern, prompted panic among nations, including Canada, pushing them to close borders to a wide swathe of southern African countries.
South African scientists first identified the variant earlier this week after a sudden, exponential rise in cases in the country. Public health experts were alarmed by the variant’s high number of mutations, with preliminary data revealing an increased potential for transmissibility and reduced response to the effects of vaccines.
Other experts, though, were quick to point out South Africa’s low rates of vaccination — sitting under 30 per cent of its total population — as well as a lack of evidence showing the variant as being any deadlier than the current dominant variants of COVID-19.
And while there is no definitive evidence yet of the variant’s ability to circumvent the protection offered by vaccines, public health experts were quick to reassure Canadians that getting vaccinated was still the best way of preventing the disease’s most severe outcomes.
On whether there was now an urgency for Canadians to get their booster shot sooner, experts were still undecided.
In response to a question on whether the general population should get their third dose sooner, Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam told reporters at a press conference Friday that she doesn’t know yet if the emergence of the variant changes the country’s trajectory on boosters.
She pointed, however, to the vast majority of fully inoculated Canadians having received their last dose in the last five to six months or so, saying they were nearing the eligible period for a booster.
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