Some media warning that previously ill -having coronavirus have a higher risk of infecting a new variant of the virus. We decided to check if this corresponds to scientific data.

With the corresponding headlines came out "Parliamentary newspaper" (“In the near war, they warned the ill-poured Covid-19 about the high risk of infecting Omcron” ”), Lenta.ru (“I warned the ill-paved Covid-19 about the possible infection with the Omicron with a strain”), “RIA Novosti"(" WHO said that the chilled Covid-19 can become infected with a strain "Omicron" "), "Russian newspaper" ("WHO: Illoated Covid-19 can be easier to become infected with" Omicone "")) and others.

Omicron option (why exactly the option, not a strain, can be Read In our other analysis) - b.1.1.529 - registered at the end of November in the south of the African continent. After only two days Calling The meeting at which she appropriated the letter of the Greek alphabet and attributed him immediately to the options that cause concern, along with already famous “Alfa”, “Beto”, “Gamma” and “Delta”. Options that cause concern, have “Genomic changes, which, according to forecasts or confirmed data, lead to a change in the characteristics of the virus as transmission, the severity of the disease caused by the virus, the ability to evade an immune response, diagnosis or drugs.” They are also capable of “causing an intensive transmission of infection among the population or the emergence of many Covid-19 clusters in many countries, which is accompanied by an increase in the relative prevalence and number of cases of the disease, or other obvious signs of influence on the epidemiological environment, indicating a new source of risk to the population throughout the world”.

The Omicron option is completely sequenced, that is, its amino acid or nucleotide sequence is determined. On the Outbreak.info website, visualizing the GISAID databases - libraries of genomic data of viruses, Reflectedthat it has at least 45 significant differences from previous options, of which 26 mutations (changes) and three deeds (loss loss) are on a S-protein, on recognition which are founded by many of the existing vaccines. Mutations are indicated by the “letter - number - letter” code, the figure in which indicates the position in which the change occurred, the first letter means the amino acid that was in this place earlier, and the second - the amino acid that stands in the new version. Deletions are indicated by the letters DEL and a couple of numbers, which indicate the "coordinates" of the falling fragment.

At the same time, to determine which elements have changed to which, it takes less time than to reliably correlate the changes in the genome with their influence on the characteristics. Therefore, scientists still find out in details what new properties of the option are encoded in these changes. At the same time, the very presence of such a number of changes unequivocally says that Smicone's Smiron's span looks much different than S-racing other options, for example, “deltas” or original, Ulyansky. Mechanism Protection from the virus works as follows: antibodies that occurred after vaccination or disease. have The "photobot" of a fragment or virus is a whole, packed with it the pathogen entering the body and in case of recognition activates the immune response. The fact that S-raids and other sections of the virus have changed a lot, leads to the fact that antibodies have a higher chance of “not recognizing” them in the face and not give the body an alarm.

The 3D structure of Spike-Belka with changes in the amino acids of the Omicron version. Source

This is what WHO warns in his press release. We quote The organization is literally: “Preliminary data, which, however, are limited in nature, indicate that compared with other options that cause concern, the Omicron option can increase the risk of re -infection.” The media missed an important part of this phrase, giving the impression that they were in principle more susceptible to a second disease than not painful, and not that their risk of getting “omicron” after the “delta” is higher than, say, the probability of catching the “delta” or “muna” after Alpha.

However, it is worth noting that of the media cited above, some indicated this information further in the text. The Russian Newspaper noted this in the second paragraph, the “parliamentary newspaper” and Lenta.ru - in the third, while RIA Novosti completely passed this part.

Regarding the effectiveness of vaccines against the new option WHO It is quite optimistic: "The vaccines used at present continue to effectively protect from the severe course of the disease and death from it." At the same time, the organization and in relation to vaccines notes that additional studies will be conducted. Center named after Gamaley already Started The adaptation of the Vaccines "Sputnik V" and "Sputnik Light" under the "Omicron", however, specifying that the current version has a high potential for neutralization of the option.

Thus, with their headlines, and sometimes the articles completely, the media misled the readers regarding the position of WHO and the probability of infection with a new option for the previous previously.