Doctors evaluate the hypothesis that the omicron strain can become a “vaccine” against COVID

The opinion that the omicron strain can itself become a “vaccine” against CORONAVIRUS needs an evidence base. This was reported to RBC by a virologist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) Felix Ershov and an immunologist at the European Vaccination Center Zoya Skorpileva.

Formerly a virologist, professor at the Center named after. N.F. Gamaleya Anatoly Altshtein admitted in an interview with Evening Moscow that if the omicron strain turns out to be “mild”, that is, it is well transmitted without causing a severe course of the disease, it can “serve as a vaccine”.

Ershov called Altstein's hypothesis paradoxical and belonging to the "realm of fantasy". He noted that the impact of a new version of the coronavirus on the course of the pandemic needs an evidence base, observations and objective statistics.

“On its own, the omicron strain does not appear to be as deadly as the delta strain, which has caused great concern. According to the data now available, the omicron strain is more harmless, but in order to draw conclusions, more statistics are needed, longer observations are required, ”the virologist said.