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Omicron Variant: What if the appearance of this "super variant" was good news?
The new strain could be less dangerous by dint of having mutated. But scientists believe it is still too early to support such a hypothesis.
Audrey Parmentier
Published on 12/04/2021 at 12:59, updated to 22:55
The sentence seems so surprising that it has been repeated in many media: The Omicron variant "could be good news", said virologist Yves Van Laethem in the Belgian daily La DH . While the new strain detected in South Africa worries the whole world which is barricaded , the specialist affirms that it could be "a very beautiful gift from Saint-Nicolas, in the sense that a less virulent variant would replace the other and allow to the unvaccinated to be immunized. If the patients have a cold and 37.7 fever, this is less of a problem. " In other words, he believes that the mutation of a virus can lead to a decrease in its lethality and thus make the disease mild. If the Omicron variant causes milder forms of the disease while being transmitted more quickly, it could therefore reverse the Delta variant - the main source today. For the time being, no death linked to this new mutant has been detected in the world, recalled the WHO on Saturday.
Other specialists abound in this direction: "This new variant is perhaps the light at the end of the tunnel. It is a very contagious variant, but perhaps not as aggressive as is feared", also advanced the November 30, Zvika Granot, professor of immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. These remarks echo those of the president of the Association of South African Physicians, Angelique Coetzee who said last week that she had received patients with positive Covid tests with unusual symptoms. "What brought them to my practice" in Pretoria, "was extreme fatigue," she said. "I'm not saying that there won't be serious illnesses" but "for now even the patients we have seen who were not vaccinated have mild symptoms," she said. . In the process, Dr Coetzee recalls that very little is known about the dangerousness of this variant that the WHO has however qualified as "worrying".
Between hope and concern, the Omicron variant is at the heart of scientific discussions. Among the questions that flow: Could Sars-CoV-2 turn into a mild disease with this new strain? Asked by L'Express, virologist Hervé Fleury and professor emeritus at the CNRS and the University of Bordeaux, replied that several options are on the table: "You have to be patient and wait a few weeks before being able to respond." In order to obtain a more precise picture of the Omicron variant, the evolution of current patients in the coming days will make it possible to assess the seriousness of the situation. Note that in South Africa- country most affected by the new variant - a peak in infections among children was reported by health authorities on Friday. With 16,000 new cases per day - due to the Omicron variant - South African pathogenicity data is eagerly awaited. "The tragedy is that everyone is making assumptions, but no one yet has solid data," annoys Hervé Fleury.
Omicron "disabled" by dint of having transferred
While conclusions cannot be drawn immediately, the virologist admits that the hypothesis that the Omicron variant could be good news is one of the possibilities to be considered. While the highly transmissible Delta variant contains nine mutations on the Spike protein, which plays an important role in infection, the Omicron variant has 32 mutations in this protein and around 50 in all. According to Hervé Fleury, the new strain could end up "handicapped" by having so much mutated. If it gained in transmissibility - because it had no other choice to maintain itself - it could have lost in virulence by dint of being transformed. "The Omicron variant has so many mutations that it could be less pathogenic. If this is confirmed, it could become a very interesting strain for the human species", underlines the professor emeritus who takes care to use the conditional each time .
Pending the results, the Delta variant continues to kill in France and remains the number one enemy. Until Omicron replaces it, maybe. "It could become a type of benign coronavirus that we already know in winter in our regions and which affects children", continues Professor Fleury before adding that this obviously remains to be proven. Across the Atlantic, the discourse is the same. "What we must do is simply continue to monitor the situation, obtaining as much information and data as possible," said Antony Fauci, White House adviser on the health crisis, on Friday. In France, scientists are divided on the assumptions about Omicron. On Twitter, medical biologist Claude-Alexandre Gustave recalls that "variants have also always been more contagious ... without being less virulent."
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According to some scientists, the virus needs to produce viral particles in order to be transmitted. "If a variant is more contagious, there is a chance that it will be more virulent", declared Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist and specialist in the modeling of infectious diseases at the University of Montpellier, in the columns of Le Figaro . For now, there is therefore nothing to confirm that a virus that has become more transmissible would be less dangerous. "Among the other options on the table, the Omicron variant could be more dangerous, more transmissible and escape vaccines", continues Hervé Fleury. Especially since according to a study made available Thursday
on the pre-publication site medRxiv,, but which has not yet been peer-reviewed, reinfection of infected subjects is three times more frequent with the Omicron variant compared to waves linked to the Beta and Delta variants. "We must also take this into account. We have hypotheses which are also not very good", concludes the virologist.
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