GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – While concerns are floating around the new Omicron variant of COVID-19, no cases have been confirmed yet in the U.S. But there still isn’t much known about the strain.
“It’s really too early to know exactly how concerned we can be,” said Bellin Health Dr. Brad Burmeister. “There’s a lot of important things that we just need to wait to hear…We’re seeing data that’s relatively good for us so far, that this might be a variant that can still be recognized by the vaccine to protect those who have been vaccinated.”
The new variant has several different changes to the genetic sequence, and Burmeister says as more changes occur along that chain, there’s more possibility for mutation.
“Anytime a virus replicates, it has the potential that it could make an error when it replicates, causing a change in the sequence of the genetic code that it has…Sometimes it makes it less infectious or less transmittable, sometimes it make them more infectious, potentially harmful and easily transmittable,” Burmeister told WTAQ News. “There’s some risk that previous infection or your vaccine or your other treatments you’ve had may not be as effective.”
Burmeister points out that the way to decrease how often variants like this pop up is by minimizing the number of people infected with the virus.
“The less people that are infected, the less replication it’s having, and therefore, the less error that’s going to happen,” Burmeister explained.
It’s also unclear how quickly the virus could land on U.S. soil, or even reach our neck of the woods in Northeast Wisconsin. But Burmeister isn’t holding his breath.
“I really would not be surprised if we already have cases in the United States. We saw that with the Delta variant, where we were asking when we’re going to see it here – and it ended up that, for the most part, it was already here,” Burmeister said.
