COVID-19 boosters may become routine flu shots as virus mutates, says ex-FDA chief

Americans may eventually require annual vaccination boosters against COVID-19 as routine flu shots, former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Dr. Stephen Hahn said in an interview with Axios. However, acknowledging that the hypothesis is currently just a "big guess", Hahn added that the key factor behind his theory will be the virus' level of virulence as it mutates. Talking about the new COVID strain Omicron, the ex-FDA Chief added that he is interested in the "encouraging" results that show people are not particularly sick from the variant.

An oncologist by profession, Dr. Hanh emphasised that "what I find interesting with Omicron is that there are some early and encouraging results of people not getting particularly sick from this variant." Explaining the probable cause of such results, he said, "Viruses often mutate to survive, but become less virulent during that mutation."

"Instead of getting a booster every six months, it could maybe be once a year," ex-FDA Chief, Dr. Hahn told Axios.

Danish Professor claims battle against Omicron is 'probably lost'

While researchers are engaging tirelessly into digging more data on the potentially immune evasive Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus, a Danish Professor on Tuesday claimed that the battle against the new variant is "probably lost". Speaking to TV2, as reported by Sputnik news, Professor of applied mathematics, Jakob Stoustrup noted that the new variant may act as similar bro the earlier variant, especially delta.

"Overall, the battle against Omicron is probably already lost, because there are so many cases now. We will live with Omicron, but we can avoid it becoming a health disaster," Stroustrup said, as quoted by Sputnik.

He, however, added: "We can assumably anticipate a similar consequence for Omicron, as we saw for Delta, where it swiftly surpassed the previous variant. There are signs that the curve this time will also be very steep." Stating that further details of the Omicron variant will be noted in weeks to come, professor Stroustrup also said that several external factors like climate and population also result in an opinion shared by scientists across the world.

It is pertinent to mention that the B.1.1.529 variant of COVID was first detected in the Gauteng province of South Africa last month. After African scientists apprised the World Health Organisation (WHO) about the new strain, the apex health agency labelled the mutation as "Variant of Concern." So far the virus has also been said to be more virulent than the Delta variant by South African scientists as it has overall 52 mutations with over 30 on its spike protein, facilitating it to bind to human cells.

(Image: PIXABAY/AP)