Centre for Evidence-Based Pharmacotherapy, Nottingham, NG9 3FD, United Kingdom.
J Clin Pharm Ther. 2022 Jan;47(1):3-5. doi: 10.1111/jcpt.13614.
Omicron is a variant of the COVID-19 virus that is causing considerable concern worldwide, with an increasing number of countries re-imposing national lockdowns. Our objective is to comment on its impact and to suggest that, threatening as it is, Omicron may well contribute to a resolution of the current pandemic.
On 31 December 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on a cluster of cases of pneumonia in Wuhan, China. Soon after, Chinese investigators who made the discovery identified the causative virus as a new coronavirus, now known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). An effective vaccine was licenced for emergency use within a year of its first sequencing. SARS-CoV-2, in common with many respiratory viruses, mutates rapidly, and the challenge for vaccine developers is to obtain vaccines that are effective against the new variants. The licenced first-generation vaccines were fortunately all highly effective against the variant known as Delta. The variant of greatest current concern is the Omicron variant, a highly infectious agent, which seems to show a significant vaccine escape with existing vaccines. Infection protects against further infection. If Omicron turns out to cause less severe disease, it may well be a contributor to ending the pandemic.
It is unlikely that the available vaccines will bring rapid control of the current pandemic, given their patchy availability worldwide and the residual pool of unvaccinated people. New vaccines take time to develop and to deploy even in the age of mRNA vaccines. If Omicron turns out to be relatively mild, it may well be that when we look back at the history of the current pandemic, the variant would be seen as a contributor to its solution. The hand of nature may well show more largesse than the developed nations in immunizing the world.
奥密克戎是 COVID-19 病毒的一种变体，在全球范围内引起了相当大的关注，越来越多的国家重新实施全国封锁。我们的目的是对其影响发表评论，并认为，尽管奥密克戎构成威胁，但它很可能有助于解决当前的大流行。
2019 年 12 月 31 日，世界卫生组织（WHO）报告了中国武汉的一组肺炎病例。不久之后，发现该病毒的中国研究人员确定病原体病毒是一种新型冠状病毒，现在称为严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）。一种有效的疫苗在其首次测序后的一年内获得了紧急使用许可。SARS-CoV-2 与许多呼吸道病毒一样，迅速发生突变，疫苗开发人员面临的挑战是获得对新变体有效的疫苗。幸运的是，首批获得许可的疫苗对已知的 Delta 变体都非常有效。目前最令人关注的变体是奥密克戎变体，这是一种高传染性的病原体，它似乎对现有疫苗表现出明显的疫苗逃逸。感染可防止进一步感染。如果奥密克戎导致的疾病不那么严重，它很可能是结束大流行的一个因素。
考虑到全球范围内现有疫苗的供应情况参差不齐，以及未接种疫苗的人群仍然存在，现有的疫苗不太可能迅速控制当前的大流行。即使在 mRNA 疫苗时代，新疫苗的开发和部署也需要时间。如果奥密克戎的毒性相对较弱，那么当我们回顾当前大流行的历史时，这种变体很可能被视为其解决方案的一个因素。大自然的力量可能比发达国家在为世界接种疫苗方面更加慷慨。
