▲ A photo material of Omicron variant

The new COVID-19 variant called Omicron was discovered on November 9, 2021. This mutation was turned out to be five times more contagious than the original virus, and some say that the vaccine is also a useless thing for this virus. It is dangerous because the virus is highly contagious. However, some scientists and COVID-19 experts have been giving opinions that Omicron is a blessing of this pandemic.

Omicron is a mutant of SARS-CoV-2. This virus seems to be highly infectious but not deadly to infected people, and symptoms are also not fatal. The infected people of Omicron usually have been asymptomatic or have mild symptoms like a slight fever. A German clinical epidemiologist, Karl Lauterbach, said that Omicron is known to have 32 spike proteins, twice as many as the current Delta mutation, which is optimized for infection and less fatal. In addition, it is also consistent with the way most respiratory diseases evolve.

▲ Map showing where Omicron variant has been detected (Source: NBC News, WHO)

According to the fact revealed so far, the spread of Omicron will increase rapidly, but its toxicity will not be too strong. Moreover, there is an opinion that this virus perhaps can be the same level as the flu or cold. Professor Oh Myung-don of Infectious Medicine at Seoul National University Hospital said that Omicron can be a dominant species, and throughout co-evolution, this virus can repel Delta mutation and be a savior to us.

Although there are a lot of positive opinions, infected people are constantly increasing, and people still need to pay attention to be more careful. Lots of experts believe that Omicron can be viewed as a sign that the COVID-19 pandemic is near to an end, and this virus may bring us the best Christmas present.

By Young Chae Lee