Experts call for multi-pronged approach to Omicron, including testing, vaccines, world wide campaign

Testing, vaccines, sequencing: experts call for multi-pronged approach to Omicron ‘Best hope’ for containing the new variant is worldwide vaccine campaign where rates are low, public health experts say the Guardian

As new cases of the Omicron coronavirus variant are uncovered across the globe and threaten to spread in America, US officials are reacting by urging vaccinations and boosters instead of imposing restrictions which have increasingly provoked political fights.

But the US should quickly invest in other tools as well, experts said, including testing, genomic sequencing and surveillance, better communication, and a strong focus on global vaccine equity to prevent the emergence of new variants.

All of that would prepare America better to deal with a variant that many experts suspect is probably already inside the country, even if undetected so far. ...

A large number of mutations in Omicron may make this variant more transmissible than others and better at evading immune responses. Early evidence suggests the variant more easily reinfects those who have survived Covid previously.

If the new variant is more transmissible or able to evade the vaccines, vaccinations and booster doses will be important to strengthen immune responses.

Boosters not only elicit more antibodies, but they also seem to produce a wider array of antibodies, which may be important in responding to a variant that can evade some immune responses. And vaccinating those who aren’t yet vaccinated takes on a new urgency amid early reports that those who have recovered from Covid previously may be reinfected with Omicron.

Another tool Biden has sought to use is travel bans for certain countries. The US banned flights from eight southern African countries, only two of which – Botswana and South Africa – have detected cases of the new variant.

But vaccines and travel bans aren’t the only tools the US should employ, experts said.

“Testing is the number one thing that we really need to be on top of right now,” Katelyn Jetelina, assistant professor of epidemiology with the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, told the Guardian. ...