Meanwhile, a sub-variant known as BA.2 is spreading rapidly in South Africa. It appears to be even more transmissible than the original strain and may cause a second surge in the current wave, one of the country’s top scientists said.
And just because you’ve already had the virus doesn’t mean you won’t get re-infected, as Covid doesn’t confer lasting immunity.
New evidence suggests that delta infections didn’t help avert omicron, even in vaccinated people. That would explain why places like the U.K. and South Africa experienced such significant outbreaks even after being decimated by delta. Reinfection is also substantially more common with omicron than previous variants.
“With omicron, because it has more of an upper respiratory component, it’s even less likely to result in durable immunity” than previous variants, Hotez said. “On that basis, it’s incorrect thinking to believe that this is somehow going to be the end of the pandemic.”
Preparing for New Variants
Preparing for the next Covid strains is therefore vital.
“As long as there are areas of the world where the virus could be evolving, and new mutants arriving, we all will be susceptible to these new variants,” said Glenda Gray, chief executive officer of the South African Medical Research Council.
Lockdowns and travel curbs aren’t going away, even if they are becoming less restrictive on the whole.
“The things that will matter there are whether we are able to respond when there is a local surge,” said Mark McClellan, former director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and director of the Duke-Margolis Center for Health Policy. “Maybe going back to putting on more masks or being a little bit more cautious about distancing.”
Inoculation is still the world’s primary line of defense against Covid. More than 62% of people around the globe have gotten at least one dose, with overall rates in wealthy countries vastly higher than in developing ones. At the current pace, it will take another five months until 75% of the world’s population has received their first shot.
But studies show one or two injections don’t ward off the pathogen. The best bet at this point is a booster shot, which triggers the production of neutralizing antibodies and a deeper immune response.