The British scientist who led research on the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine against the Corona virus said, on Saturday, that a new vaccine could be developed “very quickly” against the Omicron variant.
And the director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, Professor Andrew Pollard, considered that the spread of this new mutant severely among those who received the vaccine “as we saw last year” with the delta mutant is “highly unlikely.”
In a statement to the BBC, he added that if it spreads, "it will be possible to move very quickly" because "the paths to developing a new vaccine are steadily improving."
But he estimated that the current vaccines are effective against the new mutant, which the World Health Organization considers "alarming", although this will not be confirmed until the coming weeks.
So far, no infections with the mutant "Omicron" have been detected in the United Kingdom, one of the countries most affected by the virus in Europe, with about 144,500 deaths.
However, on Thursday, the government imposed strict restrictions on travel to and from six African countries, including South Africa, where the mutant was first detected.
Across Europe, three infections have been detected so far, possibly linked to the Omicron, in Belgium, Germany and the Czech Republic. It was also confirmed that about sixty people were infected with the Corona virus upon their return from South Africa to the Netherlands, but it was not yet confirmed that they were infected with Omicron.
The new mutant has also been detected in Malawi, Israel, Botswana and Hong Kong.
For its part, AstraZeneca said in a statement that it "developed, in close cooperation with the University of Oxford, a vaccine platform that allows us to respond quickly to new mutants that may appear." The British drug company added that it was "carrying out research in the areas where the mutation was detected."
The Pfizer/Biontech alliance, Moderna and Novavax have also expressed confidence in their ability to combat the mutant Omicron.
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