Wang Xiangdong, Powell Charles A
Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Zhongshan Hospital, Shanghai Medical College, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, New York, USA.
Clin Transl Med. 2021 Dec;11(12):e680. doi: 10.1002/ctm2.680.
Omicron variants are part of the "Coronavirus disease 2019 [COVID-19] Variants of Concerns" and has the potential to spread around the world rapidly and can harm human life. We can anticipate that the endemic state of COVID-19 will be characterized by the development of new strains with surges that will predominate in unvaccinated and immunodeficient populations. Thus, there will be an important role in promoting vaccinations, boosters and accessible testing to prevent disease transmission and to rapidly detect surges. There is an urgent need to explore the virology and biology of Omicron variants, define clinical phenomes and therapies, monitor dynamics of genetic changes, and translate the knowledge of COVID-19 into new variants. Clinical and translational medicine will be impactful in addressing these challenges by providing new insights for understanding and predicting new variants-associated transmissibility, disease severity, immune escape, diagnostic or therapeutic failure.
奥密克戎变种是“2019冠状病毒病[COVID-19]关注变种”的一部分，有可能在全球迅速传播，并可能危害人类生命。我们可以预计，COVID-19的地方流行状态将以新毒株的出现为特征，这些毒株的激增将在未接种疫苗和免疫功能低下的人群中占主导地位。因此，在推广疫苗接种、加强针接种和可及的检测以预防疾病传播和快速检测激增情况方面将发挥重要作用。迫切需要探索奥密克戎变种的病毒学和生物学特性，确定临床表型和治疗方法，监测基因变化动态，并将COVID-19的知识转化为针对新变种的认识。临床和转化医学将通过提供新的见解来理解和预测与新变种相关的传播性、疾病严重程度、免疫逃逸、诊断或治疗失败，从而在应对这些挑战方面发挥重要作用。
