Scrap or delay holiday festivities, WHO urges amid Omicron threat

GENEVA • The World Health Organisation (WHO) chief has urged people and governments to postpone or cancel year-end celebrations, noting that holiday festivities would lead to "increased cases, overwhelmed health systems and more deaths" in many places.

"An event cancelled is better than a life cancelled," said WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

His warning comes as the WHO said the Omicron variant is spreading faster than the Delta variant and it would be unwise to conclude from early evidence that Omicron is a milder variant than previous ones.

The new variant is also causing infections in people already vaccinated or who have recovered from the virus, said WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan.

"With the numbers going up, all health systems are going to be under strain," she said at a briefing on Monday.

The variant is successfully evading some immune responses, she added, meaning that the boosters being rolled out in many countries ought to be targeted at people with weaker immune systems.

Their comments echoed the findings of a study by the Imperial College London, which last week said the risk of reinfection was more than five times higher, and that the Omicron has shown no sign of being milder than Delta.

WHO officials said, however, that other forms of immunity vaccinations may prevent infection and disease.

While the antibody defences from some actions have been undermined, there has been hope that T-cells, the second pillar of an immune response, can prevent severe disease by attacking infected human cells.

WHO expert Abdi Mahamud added: "Although we are seeing a reduction in the neutralisation antibodies, almost all preliminary analysis shows T-cell-mediated immunity remains intact. That is what we really require."

Highlighting how little is known about how to handle the new variant detected last month, Dr Swaminathan said: "Of course, there is a challenge. Many of the monoclonals will not work with Omicron."

She gave no details as she referred to the treatments that mimic natural antibodies in fighting off infections. Some drugmakers have suggested the same.

As end-of-year festivities approach, Dr Tedros said countries should rein in national events linked to the holidays because allowing crowds to gather would be a perfect platform for Omicron to spread. It would be better to cancel events now and celebrate later, "than to celebrate now and grieve later", he added.

Meanwhile, the WHO team also offered some hope to a weary world wishing that 2022 would be the year that the pandemic, which has killed more than 5.3 million people worldwide, would end.

It pointed towards the development of second-and third-generation vaccines, and the further development of antimicrobial treatments and other innovations.

"(We) hope to consign this disease to a relatively mild disease that is easily prevented, that is easily treated," said Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO's top emergency expert.

"If we can keep virus transmission to a minimum, then we can bring the pandemic to an end."

But Dr Tedros said China, where the coronavirus was first detected at the end of 2019, must be forthcoming with data and information related to its origin to help the response going forward.

"We need to continue until we know the origins, we need to push harder because we should learn from what happened this time in order to (do) better in the future," he said.

REUTERS, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE