by Erin Guo
The US reached a grim milestone Wednesday when COVID-19 deaths hit 800,000 and over 50 million cases have been identified. New cases appear daily with the US averaging about 118,515 per day, which is up from 86,315, the previous 7-day average. Hospitalizations and deaths have also increased, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There are currently two major variants of concern (VOC) classified in the US: Delta and Omicron. The recently detected Omicron variant has jumped from 0.4% of all US cases to around 3%, but the Delta variant still accounts for around 97% of all cases.
The new mutation spreads more easily than the other variants, but it may also cause less severe cases of COVID-19 compared to the Delta variant, although it's still too early to determine.
"What we generally know is the more mutations a variant has, the higher level you need your immunity to be,” says Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC.
It's still unclear how effective vaccines will be at fighting the Omicron variant and vaccine manufacturer Pfizer says that the current two doses are not enough and that three shots may be needed to be effective against the variant.
The findings of an experiment that tested the variant against the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine found that there was still some effective protection against the virus (lab tests showed that boosters increased levels of virus-fighting antibodies by 25-fold).
The experiment also suggested that booster shots could be the key to fighting the variant. The Biden administration just last week has given around 7 million booster shots. The World Health Organization (WHO) believes that there is a lot more to learn about the new variant of the coronavirus. However, we are not defenseless -- as nations continue to curb the spread and severity of this virus, the pandemic may soon come to an end.
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