TAMPA, Fla. — There's more we don't know about the new COVID-19 variant than we do know, and that's not necessarily a bad thing.
Global health leaders are getting in front of this.
"Delta was lessons learned. We knew it was out there. We knew it was spreading. It got out of control before we took measures to prevent its spread," said Dr. Jill Roberts, a molecular epidemiologist with the University of South Florida.
Late last week, health officials in South Africa sounded the alarm about the concerning new variant they detected in their country. It produced a rapid rise in cases and lab work confirmed several mutations to the spike protein, which is the area around the virus that clings to our cells. A few days later the World Health Organization named the variant of concern, omicron, and travel bans of varying degrees were enacted around the globe.
Is omicron as transmissible as delta?
The short answer is we don't know yet but the research is underway.
"It has similar mutations as delta and then it has additional mutations so it stands to reason scientifically that the transmissibility would be at least the same if not more than these other strains," said Dr. Roberts.
Will omicron cause more severe disease?
While we don't know this answer for sure yet, Dr. Michael Teng, a virologist at the University of South Florida said, "My guess, and this is just sort of a guess, the disease it causes is no different than the disease from the variants we currently have."
Dr. Teng says we still need to be focused on delta here in the U.S. which is causing between 70,000 to 80,000 new cases every day.
Dr. Roberts says there's a lot to consider when looking at the brand new and limited data on omicron from other parts of the world.
Some of these cases are coming from countries with low rates of vaccination so we don't have a good idea how a fully vaccinated or boosted person would fare against the variant. Americans also have a high rate of comorbidities including obesity, diabetes, and hypertension. That makes many Americans more likely to develop severe diseases.
Will Florida become a hot zone?
The state of Florida was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in July of 2020 and then again in August of 2021 when delta was surging.
10 Tampa Bay reached out to the Florida Department of Health to see what it's doing to prepare for the potential of another COVID-19 variant. We'll update this story when we hear back.
"The real question is how immune evasive is omicron? Because we do have a lot of elderly patients that had the two-dose series a long time ago," said Dr. Teng who recommends everyone in Florida get their booster shot if they're eligible.
Dr. Roberts says Florida is vulnerable to another wave due to our tourism industry which is bringing in people from other parts of the world and our leniency on wearing masks and social distancing.