A recent investigation showed that the new COVID-19 Omicron variant is growing faster in tissues that line airways and slower in the lungs.
As specified in a VOA report, news agency Reuters recently examined a group of new research on COVID-19. For the most part, the report indicated, such studies have yet to be examined thoroughly by experts from the outside. It needs further investigation to back such findings.
Last week, researchers said the differences in how this new COVID-19 variant and the other strains of the virus are multiplying might help predict the effects of Omicron.
The new strain, compared to the Delta variant, replicates itself 70 times more rapidly in tissues that line the airway passage, Daily Express said in a similar report. It may fast-track the spread from one person to another, explained the researchers.
However, in lung tissues, Omicron is multiplying ten times slower than the original coronavirus. Such a difference might lead to less-severe infection.
Omicron Can Partially Evade Immunity from Vaccines
The findings' official report is currently under careful review by a team of experts before publishing and has not yet been released by the research group.
In a news release by Hong Kong University, Dr. Michael Chan Chi-wai, the study leader said, it is essential to note that the illness's severity in humans is not identified only by replication of the virus.
Rather, it is also determined by the individual's immune response to the infection. Such a reaction at times turns into life-threatening inflammation.
Chan also said, by infecting many more people, a very contagious virus may result in more severe disease, not to mention death even though the virus itself "may be less pathogenic," a term describing something such as a type of microbes or a virus that's causing a disease.
The study leader elaborated that the Omicron variant can partly evade immunity from vaccines and previous infection, so the general threat from this variant is likely to be very substantial. Also, the new variant holds cells more tightly, withstanding some antibodies.
How Dangerous is Omicron?
A New Scientist report said that the Omicron variant has turned out to be a worldwide threat to public health due to its "partly dangerous set of mutation."
The Discovery of the Omicron variant started when researchers from South Africa noticed a tiny increase in COVID-19 cases in Gauteng province and decided to inherently sequence more samples.
As a result, they discovered a variant "with a lot of worrying mutations" and alerted the world in late November. Scientists in different parts of the world noticed the said variant around the same time from sequences uploaded to publicly available databases.
Based on the data gathered, Omicron has approximately 50 mutations compared to the original coronavirus detected in Wuhan, China, with 30 alone, solely in the outer spike protein.
Certainly, this matters as the spike protein are the antibodies' target. The extensive changes in the spike protein of Omicron substantially reduce the efficacy of the antibodies people have from vaccination or infection with the non-Omicron variants.
Related information about the Omicron variant mutation is shown on Dr. John Campbell's YouTube video below:
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