Omg, Omicron! Why it's too soon to panic about COVID vaccines and the new variant

By Adam Taylor, Early Career Research Leader, Emerging Viruses, Inflammation and Therapeutics Group, Menzies Health Institute Queensland, Griffith University

Researchers around the world are trying to work out whether existing COVID vaccines protect us from the latest variant, Omicron.

The worst-case scenario is the virus has mutated so much in the crucial parts of its genome that it can escape COVID vaccines designed to protect us from earlier versions of the virus – with devastating consequences globally.

But it’s too soon to panic. And vaccines may end up protecting us against Omicron after all, as they…

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