THE QUESTION is the day when the new strain of corona omicron virus will arrive in Serbia, says the deputy director of the Clinical Center Nis, anesthesiologist Radmilo Jankovic, noting that there is not enough information on how the new mutation affects the spread of the virus and the clinical picture. a new situation.
Foto: Printskrin
– It is logical to assume that Serbia will not be an isolated island and that it is only a matter of time before the first to be infected with a new strain of coronavirus, we can only reorganize and see what we can do – Janković said for Tanjug.
He points out that the main concern about the new strain is whether it will spread more easily, cause more severe clinical pictures and how effective the vaccines currently in use will be against the new subvariant.
Jankovic says that it is possible that the efficiency of vaccines will not be at the same level as for the original, Wuhan strain of the virus, which, as he says, has been shown in delta strains, but he believes that we should wait and see the effects.
– All vaccines, conditionally speaking modern vaccines, which are in circulation in Western countries, target spike protein as the basic part of the virus with a new mutation – said Janković.
When it comes to the pathogenicity of the new strain of the virus, it is not expected to be higher and to cause more severe clinical pictures.
– As for easier sucking, it is probably possible and we should be careful, because we have shown that we look at things quite comfortably. But, I think that the warning reaction of the rest of the world may force us to be more serious this time as well – said Janković.
He notes that as long as there is a possibility that the virus can spread freely and multiply in the unvaccinated, which he says are the most sensitive, new mutations can occur.
– It is not excluded that some such mutations will be weaker, which will eventually lead to the virus having only an endemic character, but each mutation so far has been more dangerous than the previous one – he said.
He is convinced that, if more than 70 of the world’s population were vaccinated, there would be less possibility for the development of “mutants”.
Commenting on the worsening of the epidemic situation in most European countries, Janković says that Serbia was “saved” by the fact that, as he says, it started giving a third, booster dose, before most other countries.
– Currently, the biggest problem is in Germany and Austria, where a large number of those did not receive the third dose because they thought that vaccines, such as Pfizer and Moderna, give more lasting immunity – said Janković.
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