Ômicron: what is the probability of being reinfected with the new variant?
The strain B.1.1.529 virus is also known as omicron is a variant of SARS-CoV-2 the virus that causes the coronavirus.
However, lineage B.1.1.529 was reported to the World Health Organization by South Africa on 24 November 2021.
Above all, the omicron has a large number of mutations, some of which are worrying.
The number of Omicron cases is increasing in all areas of South Africa.
However, some evidence shows that this variant carries a risk of reinfection.
However, studies are underway to assess the exact impact on transmissibility and mortality, among other factors. [1]
Probability of being reinfected with the new omicron variant:
Omicron has the potential for high infection and reinfection, however preliminary data indicate that it causes only mild symptoms in vaccinated people.
Also, the most common symptoms of the virus are extreme tiredness, body aches, dry cough , headache and sore throat . [two]
The data suggest that the highest rate of transmissibility of contagion is in unvaccinated people and potentially in those whose previous infection was milder, or with a weaker immune response.
Masks work against Ômicron:
In addition, masks offer protection against all variants, Anvisa continues to recommend the use of a mask, regardless of vaccination status. [3]
However, people should aim to wear masks with the highest degree of protection they can.
And most important of all is that the mask fits snugly on the face, covering the entire mouth and nose, with no holes through which air can enter.
Also, wearing a well-fitting mask is the top recommendation from authorities for protection against the coronavirus .
Lack of vaccination favors the emergence of mutations:
Mutations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus happen when a virus proliferates, at the time of replication of the genetic material, errors in the RNA sequence can occur.
These errors favor the appearance of a strain that is perhaps more dangerous than those previously existing.
In addition, deputy director of the Scientific Development Center of the Butantan Institute and scientific researcher Maria Carolina Sabbaga explains.
The virus has high transmissibility, as occurred in the first and second waves of Covid-19 in Brazil, the virus is infecting many people, and in this way variants arise.
She also explains that we are in a globalized world and there is no point in vaccinating one part of the world and not vaccinating the other, because we are all together.
Therefore, if some people are left without vaccination, there will not be protection for everyone, and we will not solve this pandemic.
In this sense, it is the same thing for us to vaccinate only the city of São Paulo and not vaccinate the surroundings, so variants begin to arrive from other places. [4]