
<p><strong>The Omicron variant continues to spread widely across the globe, and its mutations have left scientists concerned about the efficacy of existing vaccines. However, early research indicates that existing vaccines – especially when supplemented by a booster shot – seem to indicate effectiveness against Omicron.</strong></p>



<p>Omicron has taken the world by storm and triggered a deluge of travel restrictions and lockdowns as the festive season approaches. Despite almost 40% of the globe reportedly having received vaccinations, concerns about the possibility of Omicron’s increased transmissibility and possible vaccine resistance has scientists furiously at work to determine whether the variant is able to evade the protections offered by vaccines, with early data providing a glimmer of hope. The variant has been found in 57 countries so far and spreading strongly in South Africa according to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) latest epidemiology report, noting that the preliminary data seems to indicate the mutations in the Omicron variant reduce the ability of natural immunities to protect against reinfection. However, the WHO also cautioned that it is too early for conclusive characteristics to be drawn. </p>



<p>“Further information is needed to fully understand the clinical picture of those infected with the Omicron variant,” said the report.</p>



<p>The Omicron variant contains 37 mutations of previous iterations of COVID-19 and the vector in which possible changes of transmissibility and mortality occur in the spike protein. However, vaccines still seem to promote resistance to the Omicron variant, with two leading vaccine producers Pfizer and BioNTech having early research indicating that while two doses of these vaccines provide fewer antibodies against Omicron, a third booster shot significantly improved immune response. </p>



<p>“Our preliminary, first dataset indicate that a third dose could still offer a sufficient level of protection from disease of any severity caused by the Omicron variant,” said Ugur Sahin, the CEO of BioNTech in a joint press release with Pfizer on 8 December announcing the results of the preliminary research. Other treatments are also in development to combat the virus which seem to have effective results against the Omicron variant; GlaxoSmithKline, another pharmaceutical giant, has been producing an antibody treatment which has shown effectiveness against synthesized variants of Omicron. </p>



<p>The treatment, termed ‘Sotrovimab’, was recently cleared for use in the United Kingdom, and was shown to decrease the risk of hospitalization and death in people with mild to severe COVID-19 by some 79% in clinical trials. “We are confident that sotrovimab will continue to provide significant benefit for the early treatment of patients hoping to avoid the most severe consequences of Covid-19,&#8221; said co-developer of the treatment Vir’s CEO George Scangos.</p>



<p>New treatments and the likely efficacy of booster shots offer some hope in the face of the fourth wave of infections due to Omicron. However, in countries such as South Africa, where vaccination rates and booster uptakes are relatively low, concern around the variant’s spread are still rife, particularly since the country reported almost 20,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, with government deliberating further lockdown measures in response to the rise in cases, while trying to mitigate the economic hardship that hard lockdowns will bring. </p>



<p>The South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAPHRA) on Wednesday approved the rollout of booster shots for the vaccinated, the announcement coming just hours after Pfizer and BioNTech’s research indicating booster effectiveness was released. Other African powerhouses such as Nigeria and Kenya have taken diverging approaches to the booster shots; Nigeria has begun to roll out booster doses to their population, while Kenya has opted not to consider implementing booster shots until early next year.</p>



<p>However, since the rollout of booster vaccines on the African continent is still in its infancy and with vaccination rates still low, it remains to be seen if the rollout of additional doses will be sufficient to push back the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections.</p>


US-HEALTH-VIRUS-VACCINE

Do Vaccines Work Against Omicron? Here’s What The Data Says So Far


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>The omicron variant of the coronavirus is spreading twice as quickly as the delta variant and may be three times as likely to reinfect those that have already recovered from Covid-19, according to a pair of preliminary studies out of South Africa this week.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Preliminary&nbsp;<a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1hA6Mec2Gq3LGqTEOj35RqSeAb_SmXpbI/view" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>&nbsp;from nine South African provinces shows the omicron variant has spread more than twice as quickly as the delta variant, according to South African Covid-19 Modelling Consortium figures shared on Twitter Friday by London School of Hygiene &amp; Tropical Medicine mathematical modeler Carl Pearson, though the data has not been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal.</p>



<p>Pearson told the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/12/03/world/omicron-variant-covid/omicron-is-spreading-more-than-twice-as-quickly-as-the-delta-variant-in-south-africa-scientists-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><em>New York Times</em></a><em>&nbsp;</em>researchers aren’t sure whether the omicron variant’s quick spread is primarily due to its contagiousness or an ability to evade the immune system, adding, “It’s possible that it might even be less transmissible than Delta.”</p>



<p>South African researchers also estimated Thursday that omicron is at least three times more likely to reinfect people who have recovered from a Covid infection than previous variants, citing a large increase in the rate of coronavirus reinfection during the country’s most recent wave, according to a non-peer-reviewed preprint&nbsp;<a href="https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.11.11.21266068v2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">article</a>.</p>



<p><meta charset="utf-8">The omicron variant accounted for 73% of all sequenced genomes from positive Covid-19 tests in South Africa in the month of November, <a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/Update-of-SA-sequencing-data-from-GISAID-3-Dec-21-Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a> to the country’s National Institute For Communicable Diseases, though only a small fraction of samples from tests are sequenced each week.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“The studies appear to illustrate what we’ve been seeing anecdotally come out of the data from South Africa,” Dr. Amesh Adalja, senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Health Security at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, told&nbsp;<em>Forbes. “</em>This variant has the ability to transmit efficiently and has the ability to cause reinfections at a higher rate than we’ve seen with other variants.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



<p>16,055. That’s how many new Covid-19 cases South Africa&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nicd.ac.za/latest-confirmed-cases-of-covid-19-in-south-africa-3-december-2021/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;on Friday, jumping from 11,535 on Thursday and 8,561 on Wednesday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>Covid-19 cases have surged in South Africa since the omicron variant was first identified in southern Africa on November 25. The World Health Organization&nbsp;<a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/28-11-2021-update-on-omicron" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">deemed&nbsp;</a>omicron a “variant of concern” shortly after, though it clarified the transmissibility and severity of disease resulting from the variant remain unclear. Some researchers are hopeful that current Covid-19 vaccines will offer robust protection against the variant: South Africa’s NCID&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/safrica-festival-halted-after-36-test-positive-covid-site-2021-12-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;in a report Thursday that while omicron may be able to evade some immune protection, “the protection against severe disease and death from vaccines should be less affected.” Fewer than 25% of South Africans have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus, according to data from Oxford University’s&nbsp;<a href="https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Our World In Data</a>&nbsp;project.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



<p>The United States detected its first confirmed case of the omicron variant on Wednesday and has since detected cases in six different states. It is unclear whether infections will spike in the U.S. as they have in South Africa as the variant spreads. “The key thing will be trying to extrapolate what’s going on in South Africa where there are different dynamics in terms of immunity from vaccination versus immunity from prior infection,” Adalja said. “It’s hard to completely extrapolate what’s going on in a place where only 25% of the population is fully vaccinated to a place where 60% of the population is fully vaccinated.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2021/11/30/1059859253/why-omicron-variant-spreads-so-quickly-infectious-mutations" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">New evidence shows omicron likely spreads twice as fast as delta in South Africa</a> (NPR)</p>



<p><em><strong>By Mason Bissada, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


S. Africa’s fight against coronavirus

Scientists Say Omicron Is Spreading Twice As Quickly As Delta In South Africa—And Could Be More Likely To Re-Infect


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Google has pushed back its January 10 timeline to begin a hybrid work model for employees in the United States, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, according to reports Thursday, amid uncertainties about how contagious the coronavirus’ new omicron variant is and as more countries report cases of the variant.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Chris Rackow — Google’s vice president of global security — told U.S. employees in an email Thursday they will not be required to start a hybrid work model on the planned date, and the company will decide next year when to end remote work,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/02/google-workers-in-us-wont-return-to-office-as-expected-on-jan-10.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">CNBC</a>&nbsp;reported.</p>



<p>Rackow didn’t mention the omicron variant as a reason for the delay, according to CNBC.</p>



<p>Matt Brittin, the president of Google&#8217;s Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region, said in a memo obtained by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-postpone-office-return-emea-coronavirus-omicron-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Insider</a>&nbsp;that offices in those regions will decide when to bring employees back to the office depending on local conditions.</p>



<p>Brittin reportedly said the decision stemmed from uncertainty sparked by omicron, as scientists are still trying to understand how contagious or transmittable it is and evaluate existing vaccines’ effectiveness against it.&nbsp;</p>



<p>A Google spokesperson told&nbsp;<em>Forbes</em>&nbsp;it will determine when to begin hybrid work based on local conditions, and it has opened 90% of offices in the United States, but did not confirm reports about changes in the EMEA region and the U.S.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>In August, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a<a href="https://blog.google/inside-google/company-announcements/extending-our-voluntary-return-office/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;statement</a>&nbsp;it would allow local offices to decide when to end the voluntary work-from-home format beyond January 10. He said employees would receive a 30-day notice before returning to the office.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>In October, Amazon announced it would leave it up to individual teams to<a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/amazon-offering-teams-more-flexibility-as-we-return-to-office" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;decide</a>&nbsp;how many days a week or which days of the week employees should be in the office, adding flexibility to the hybrid work model. Amazon employees are expected to work from home until January 3. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/workplace/amazon-offering-teams-more-flexibility-as-we-return-to-office" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>: “We’re going to be in a stage of experimenting, learning, and adjusting for a while as we emerge from this pandemic. All of this led us to change course a bit.”</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<p><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/google-postpone-office-return-emea-coronavirus-omicron-2021-12" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google is pushing back its office return in Europe, Middle East, and Africa as the Omicron coronavirus strain creates uncertainty</a>&nbsp;(Insider)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/12/02/google-workers-in-us-wont-return-to-office-as-expected-on-jan-10.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google workers in U.S. won’t return to office as expected on Jan. 10</a>&nbsp;(CNBC)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/12/01/omicron-discovered-in-24-countries-as-new-variant-spreads/?sh=17c7702f3433">Omicron Discovered In 24 Countries As New Variant Spreads</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/heidilynnekurter/2021/08/26/google-plans-to-cut-remote-workers-salaries-by-25-heres-the-impact/?sh=7a6005484fb2">Google Plans To Cut Remote Workers’ Salaries By 25%. Here’s The Impact</a>&nbsp;(<em>Forbes</em>)</p>



<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/11/business/amazon-office-remote-work.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Amazon expands flexibility for some employees to work from home indefinitely.</a>&nbsp;(<em>New York Times</em>)</p>


FRANCE-ECONOMY-TECHNOLOGY-VIVATECH

Google Reportedly Delays Office Return In U.S., Europe, Middle East And Africa Amid Spread Of Omicron Variant


<p><strong>As the fear of the new Omicron variant spreads along with the virus itself, many countries and businesses worldwide have implemented or begun to discuss implementing vaccine mandates, restricting access to services or work to only those who have received their jabs.  </strong></p>



<p>Are you vaccinated against COVID-19? Depending on where you are in the world, you may not have access to certain government services&nbsp;or be able to continue employment&nbsp;without proof of vaccination as vaccine mandates are deliberated and&nbsp;potentially&nbsp;rolled out around the world.&nbsp;</p>



<p>As the Omicron variant sparks&nbsp;fears around the possibility of increased mortality and transmissibility, some nations&nbsp;and businesses&nbsp;have made&nbsp;COVID-19 vaccinations mandatory, with more nation states considering their implementation.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>“I think it is understandable and appropriate to lead this discussion now…. how we can encourage and potentially think about mandatory vaccination within the European&nbsp;Union,” said&nbsp;Ursula von der Leyen,&nbsp;European Commission President,&nbsp;during a press conference yesterday.&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Some European&nbsp;Union&nbsp;nations have already implemented&nbsp;their own form of&nbsp;mandates, with Italy and France requiring all healthcare workers to provide proof of vaccination, and many other countries implementing fines and restricting&nbsp;interprovincial and international&nbsp;movement for the unvaccinated.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Similar&nbsp;actions are underway on the African continent, with Nigeria, Kenya and South Africa considering&nbsp;or implementing&nbsp;mandates, with&nbsp;South African President Cyril Ramaphosa&nbsp;announcing deliberations during a national address on November&nbsp;28:&nbsp;&#8220;Government has set up a task team that will undertake broad consultations on making vaccination mandatory for specific activities and locations.&#8221;&nbsp;&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Despite&nbsp;having previously&nbsp;stated&nbsp;that&nbsp;“nobody will be forced to take this vaccine. Nobody will be forbidden from traveling, from enrolling at school, or from taking part in any public activity if they have not been vaccinated” in an earlier address, the President seems to have adjusted the&nbsp;government’s&nbsp;position due to economic pressure as a result of increased travel restrictions due to the Omicron variant, which has seen much of the world implement a travel&nbsp;ban on&nbsp;southern Africa in the run-up to the holiday period.&nbsp;The South African Rand dropped to&nbsp;its&nbsp;weakest level in over a year with the discovery of the&nbsp;new variant.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Other countries on&nbsp;the continent have already made the move to implement.&nbsp;Kenya, which has seen over a quarter of a million cases of COVID-19, will require&nbsp;people to provide proof of vaccination to enter businesses, restaurants, schools and transport services as of 21 December 2021 – a move which has seen both praise and criticism, as business associations and civil society say that a nation with an 8.8% vaccination rate will not be able to meet sufficient targets&nbsp;and will cause further economic damage.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>Nigeria has recently extended the vaccination deadline for civil servants to&nbsp;31 December 2021, after which the unvaccinated will see themselves barred access from any public buildings or offices.&nbsp;</p>



<p>However, with only 1.7% of the country’s population vaccinated, it seems unlikely to reach the Federal Government’s earlier set goal of 50% of the population vaccinated by January 2022.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Some South African businesses have already begun implementing mandates of their own, with health and finance conglomerate Discovery&nbsp;making vaccination mandatory for staff&nbsp;by early 2022, the announcement of which caused a surge in uptake of the vaccines within the&nbsp;organization, rising from barely 20% to 94%.&nbsp;<br>&nbsp;<br>“Ultimately, as a science-led organization,&nbsp;we feel a strong moral imperative to do this, given the need to curb the loss of life and the indisputable proof that vaccines work in doing so,” said Discovery CEO Adrian Gore in an op-ed published in South Africa’s&nbsp;<em>Business Day</em>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>Universities and other large businesses in South Africa have followed suit.&nbsp;</p>



<p>Worldwide, the implementation&nbsp;or announcement of mandates&nbsp;have&nbsp;seen backlash and protests.&nbsp;The Biden administration in the United States has seen setbacks recently, with federal courts halting attempts to roll&nbsp;out vaccine mandates for healthcare workers and federal government contractors.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>



<p>In Australia, thousands in Melbourne protested outside Parliament House yesterday as a wide-reaching vaccine mandate was implemented, with many workers in public service leaving their uniforms on the steps of the House in protest against the mandate. <br> <br>Similar protests have occurred throughout the globe, including South Africa, which has seen anti-vaccination protestors demonstrate outside healthcare and government facilities over the last year. <br> <br>With COVID-19 cases growing globally and uncertainty around the impact of the Omicron variant, it remains to be seen whether vaccine mandates will be able to be successfully implemented, and if they will contribute successfully to the fight against the pandemic. <br> <br></p>


Vaccination centers in South Africa continue administering Covid-19 vaccines

Vaccine Mandates – ‘No Jab, No Work’ May Become Reality Amid Omicron Fears


<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



<p>Moderna President Stephen Hoge&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-exec-says-company-could-have-omicron-booster-ready-march-2021-12-01/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Wednesday Covid-19 booster shots targeting the omicron variant could be ready to present for U.S. authorization by March, though both he and federal infectious disease point man Dr. Anthony Fauci said they believe current vaccines will be effective against the new strain, with Fauci advising the public to get a booster now.&nbsp;</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



<p>Moderna has begun to develop an omicron-specific booster, Hoge told Reuters, as well as a multi-valent vaccine targeting omicron and three other coronavirus variants, though that shot will take several more months.&nbsp;</p>



<p>The March target date is the earliest the omicron booster could be approved under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s current guidelines, though the company would manufacture the vaccine during testing.</p>



<p>Hoge said he thinks the existing vaccines “will be able to slow down, if not completely stop, the omicron variant.”</p>



<p>Fauci&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/CBSNews/status/1466124598303469570" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">advised</a>&nbsp;the public in a press conference Wednesday morning to “get boosted now,” as “we may not need a variant-specific boost,” though he said the Biden administration has been in contact with the pharmaceutical companies developing Covid-19 vaccines about the potential need for these boosters.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



<p>“Our experience with variants such as the delta variant is that even though the vaccine isn&#8217;t specifically targeted to the delta variant, when you get a high enough level of an immune response, you get spillover protection even against a variant that the vaccine wasn&#8217;t specifically directed at,” Fauci said Wednesday.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



<p>The first documented U.S. case of the omicron variant was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisakim/2021/12/01/first-case-of-omicron-variant-discovered-in-california/?sh=4e8831a03b99">reported</a>&nbsp;in San Francisco on Wednesday. The individual, who recently returned from a trip to South Africa where the variant was first identified, was vaccinated for Covid-19 but had not received a booster. They are currently experiencing mild symptoms. Fauci&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/30/fauci-says-omicron-covid-variant-has-already-been-found-in-20-countries-but-not-yet-in-the-us.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>&nbsp;Wednesday it is too early to tell whether the omicron variant is more deadly than the delta variant.</p>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



<p>Pfizer and BioNTech are conducting clinical <a href="https://investors.biontech.de/news-releases/news-release-details/pfizer-and-biontech-provide-update-booster-program-light-delta" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">trials</a> for an updated version of their vaccine that would target the full spike protein of the delta variant.</p>



<p><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/masonbissada/"></a><em><strong>By Mason Bissada, Forbes Staff</strong></em></p>


Tag: Omicron

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

Do Vaccines Work Against Omicron? Here’s What The Data Says So Far

Scientists Say Omicron Is Spreading Twice As Quickly As Delta In South Africa—And Could Be More Likely To Re-Infect

Google Reportedly Delays Office Return In U.S., Europe, Middle East And Africa Amid Spread Of Omicron Variant

Vaccine Mandates – ‘No Jab, No Work’ May Become Reality Amid Omicron Fears

Moderna Says Omicron Booster Could Be Ready By March, But Fauci Says Not To Wait