- 'Best weapon' - Ryan acknowledged it was possible that the existing vaccines might prove less effective against Omicron, which counts more than 30 mutations on the spike protein that dots the surface of the coronavirus and allows it to invade cells.
But he said it was "highly unlikely" it would be able to evade vaccine protections altogether. "We have to confirm if there's any lapse in that protection, but I would expect to see some protection there. "The preliminary data from South Africa wouldn't indicate that we will have a catastrophic loss of efficacy.
In fact, the opposite at the moment." In the fight against all Covid variants, he said, "the best weapon we have right now is to get vaccinated." Two weeks after first being