Covid Ireland: Prof Luke O'Neill shares positive outlook despite worrying Omicron variant update
One of Ireland's leading immunologists has said there are reasons to approach Christmas with confidence, despite the presence of the Omicron variant of Covid-19.
One case of the variant, which was initially reported by scientists in South Africa, has been confirmed in Ireland with sequencing underway to establish if further infections are circulating here. "We hope so, they're not guaranteed to have an effect but from what we know about the virus is that it spreads from social contact so any kind of limiting of social contact should slow down the spread of it," he told the Irish Mirror.
"You've got to remember it's unusual, and the Tanaiste [Leo Varadkar] said it himself that we're introducing restrictions when things have stabilised a bit," he said. "We do know that it's more transmissible than Delta, the evidence from South Africa supports that, maybe 3 to 3.5-fold more transmissible than Delta," he said.
"The other thing we can say is there is a bit of optimism, the vaccines, especially the booster, should hold up against it," he said.While there is fear this spike could get past the antibodies that prevent the virus from breaking through, by having loads of antibodies, albeit less effective ones, this could overcome that weakness, Prof O'Neill explained.
Christmas As we approach the festive season, Prof O'Neill said the situation with Covid-19 in Ireland is a positive one, particularly given the expedited rollout of booster vaccines.
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