By Aaron Mandelbaum
Covid-19 has made a heavy impact on everyone's life. And for some more than others.
Many of us have lost family members from the virus, and a lot of us also have family members that were infected. As we all know, the infection affects us all very differently in terms of severity, and this includes variants of the original virus. Over the past few months many variants of the original Covid-19 strain have been prominent in
our countries, such as the Delta Variant and the Lambda and Mu (all named after the Greek Alphabet). According to the official CDC Website, “Viruses like SARS-CoV-2 [COVID-19] continuously evolve as changes in the genetic code (genetic mutations) occur during replication of the genome.” This only shows the importance of being vaccinated against this virus. If we are all vaccinated, we can not only stop the spread of the virus but we can also stop the virus from mutating in our bodies. A big part of stopping this virus is called herd immunity, “when a large portion of a community (the herd) becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. As a result, the whole community becomes protected — not just those who are immune.” (Mayoclinic). This is what we would have if everyone was vaccinated. Since there are too many unvaccinated people in the U.S, we are forced to combat these variants that have mutated in unvaccinated people.
The newest and most pressing pressing variant at the moment is Omicron (pronounced; aa·muh·kraan). The scariest thing about variants is our lack of knowledge about them. Logically, looking at the damage that the original strain has done only makes the newer strain even scarier. There is very little that we know so far about Omicron, so this will summarize what we know so far. This variant was found in South Africa, and in an unvaccinated person with a very compromised immune system. The reason as to why this variant was found in Africa is because their vaccination rate is so low, when the vaccination rate is so low there is opportunity for the virus to mutate and create more variants. The first case was found in late November. Within only a few weeks it traveled to Europe, Canada, Australia and now, the United States. The first case of Omicron in America was found in a fully vaccinated California resident. Over the night of December 2nd, there were 5 new Cases of Omicron In NYC. What we see so far is that cases are mostly from people who have traveled from South Africa and brought it over. Again there is not much that researchers know yet, such as if Omicron is more contagious or more severe than Delta. The most concerning part of this new variant is the rise in spike proteins. Spike proteins are special proteins that allow the virus to infect human cells. This has scientists worried about whether any level of vaccination or older covid infections will provide people with enough antibodies to combat Omicron. This doesn't mellow the importance of being vaccinated though, which also means that the more antibodies the better. Within the next few weeks, we should know more about Omicron and how to protect ourselves from it.
A few weeks ago the Pfizer Vaccine was cleared by the FDA and in dyc to administer to children between the ages of 5 and 11. Get vaccinated kids!
Comments