BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — All eyes are on the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Health officials say it’s a variant of concern and has already made its way to at least four continents and several countries.
As of now, it’s not a matter of if, but when the variant could make its way to the U.S.
There’s also been a lot of chatter on social media, about the new COVID variant named from the World Health Organization.
It’s the 5th variant of concern and was discovered in South Africa. FOX54 News Keneisha Deas takes a look at the omicron variant.
THE QUESTION:
Did WHO skip letters in the Greek alphabet when naming COVID variants and why?
THE SOURCES:
- World Health Organization
- Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, Director of the UAB Division of Infectious Diseases, University of Alabama Birmingham
THE ANSWER:
Yes, WHO did skip Greek letters to avoid misinformation. This is still a very new variant that health officials and scientists are learning about.
WHAT WE FOUND:
“You may remember in the beginning we were naming variants by the places there were South African variants, the New Zealand variants and few other countries that were the New Zealand variant. We’ve tried to get away from that because there can be a lot of stigma and misinformation with just talking about that point of origin,” said Marrazzo.
“The next one was going to be Mu and Nu, and WHO reportedly decided that that was too confusing to call it nu variants because they are all new variants, n-e-w. The next one would be a letter that’s a very common surname - so they skipped right next to Omicron. So that’s how they got to it,” added Marrazzo.
What do we know so far about this Omicron Variant?
“So we haven’t detected them here yet. There have been no U.S. cases. There have been no Alabama cases,” said Marrazzo.
“In the next week or so, we should learn more from laboratory work, about whether the antibodies that people get when they get vaccinated will protect them against infection from this new variant. We’re very eager to obviously hear about that but in the meantime, all we can say is to be cautious, continue to get vaccinated. If you haven’t been, get your booster shot if you haven’t had it and for now, wear a mask,” added Marrazzo.