© AFP
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“Postpone your meetings. A canceled party is better than a canceled life.” The CEO of the World Health Organization (WHO) makes that call for fear of the omikron variant of the corona virus.
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mtmSource: The Guardian
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Omikron is not only spreading faster than delta, but is also causing infections in people who have already been vaccinated against the corona virus or have recovered from it, says WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. He warns that the upcoming holidays – and the gatherings that come with it – “will lead to more infections, to health care overload and more deaths in many places”. That is why he is now urging people – worldwide – to postpone their planned festivities. “A canceled party is better than a canceled life.”
Soumya Swaminathan, the chief scientist at the World Health Organization, added that it would be “unwise” to conclude now that omikron is “a milder variety”. “With the rising number of infections, all health systems will come under pressure,” she said. “Omikron successfully evades some immune responses.”
The statements of Ghebreyesus and Swaminathan are in line with a study by Imperial College London. It showed last week that the risk of reinfection by the omikron variant was more than five times greater and that there are currently no signs that omikron is milder than the delta variant.
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