\u201cAll the scientists I\u2019ve talked to…are like, \u2018This is not going to be good,\u2019\u201d St\u00e9phane Bancel told the Financial Times.<\/b>
\nHard data is still weeks away, but Moderna\u2019s CEO is already expecting vaccines to struggle with the omicron variant of COVID. \u201cAll the scientists I\u2019ve talked to…are like, \u2018This is not going to be good,\u2019\u201d St\u00e9phane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview published Tuesday. It\u2019s still unclear whether the omicron variant, first discovered in South Africa, will evade vaccines and\/or spread more rapidly than the delta variant, but the number of mutations has experts worried. \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be a material drop (in effectiveness),\u201d Bancel told the publication. \u201cI just don\u2019t know how much because we need to wait for the data.\u201d The omicron variant has 50 mutations from the current dominant strain of the virus, the delta variant. While the virus is constantly mutating, the omicron variant is special because 32 of the 50 mutations occur on the crucial spike protein that has been targeted by vaccines. The spike protein is how the virus enters a person\u2019s cells and spreads; the available vaccines are focused on stopping the protein. \u201cThere is no world, I think, where (effectiveness) is the same level\u2026 we had with delta,\u201d Bancel said. Health officials noticed the variant when cases spiked in South Africa. The country was averaging about 200 COVID cases per day until last week, when numbers quickly jumped from 1,000 to 2,000 to 3,000. That prompted the gene sequencing that discovered the omicron variant. Other nations moved quickly to cut off travel from South Africa and neighboring countries, but U.S. health officials have admitted the strain will almost certainly enter the country, if it isn\u2019t here already. \u201cWhen you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you\u2019re already having travel-related cases that they\u2019ve noted in Israel and Belgium and other places \u2014 when you have a virus like this \u2014 it almost invariably is ultimately going to go essentially all over,\u201d Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday.<\/p>\n