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COVID’s Omicron Variant is High Risk — Here’s Are all You Need to Know
Researchers are still learning about Covid’s new omicron variant, but one expert has a stark prediction.
“All the scientists I’ve talked to… are like, ‘This is not going to be good,’” Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times on Tuesday.
On Sunday, at least two omicron cases were detected in Canada, marking its arrival in North America — roughly two weeks after the variant was first detected in South Africa, on November 9.
White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said he “would not be surprised” if omicron is already in the United States, in an interview with NBC’s “Weekend TODAY” on Saturday.
The next few weeks will be telling, as scientists analyze how effective the Covid vaccines are against omicron and countries crack down on testing and tracing to identify where the variant is. The World Health Organization said Monday that omicron poses a “very high” global risk.
In the meantime, multiple states have warned people to stay vigilant. New York City is back to “strongly recommending” masks in all indoor public settings, regardless of vaccination status, Dr. David Chokshi, commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, told reporters Monday.
Here’s What you Need to Know:
Is omicron more dangerous than other variants?
Omicron contains troubling characteristics that might make it more transmissible — particularly among people who have already gotten and recovered from Covid, according to the WHO.
Most notably, the variant contains “a disturbingly large number of mutations in the spike protein,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday.
The spike protein is the part of the virus that latches onto and penetrates cells in your body, leading to a Covid infection.
Omicron has more than 30 spike protein mutations, compared with the original virus — significantly more than the delta variant. The function of those mutations isn’t fully known yet, but some of them could make it easier for the virus to infiltrate human cells.
The WHO noted on Friday that “infections have increased steeply” in South Africa, in tandem with the discovery of omicron.
Only 24% of the population in South Africa is vaccinated, compared to 59% of the U.S. population.
Still, other countries can expect a similar pattern to unfold as the variant spreads, Fauci said.
Potentially Good News:
So far, omicron hasn’t caused any known deaths, and its symptoms appear to be “extremely mild,” Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association that discovered the variant, told the BBC on Sunday.
If true, that could mean omicron’s mutations make it more easily transmissible, but less severe. (According to the WHO, there’s no consensus yet that omicron symptoms differ from other variants.)
Do the vaccines already protect against omicron?
It’s too soon to tell — which isn’t reason for panic. It just means scientists are working on finding out.
Given omicron’s plentiful mutations, it could theoretically evade vaccine-induced protection. Bancel said he anticipates a drop in vaccine effectiveness. Researchers will likely have answers within the next two weeks by testing antibodies from people who are vaccinated, and seeing if they are capable of neutralizing the virus.
Even if omicron can evade those antibodies, the vaccines are still likely to protect against severe illness, BioNTech CEO and co-founder Dr. Ugur Sahin told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.
because omicron will “hardly be able to completely evade T-cells,” which are the body’s second line of defense against the virus, Sahin said.
Still, President Joe Biden instructed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday to use the “fastest process available without cutting any corners,” to make omicron-specific vaccines available, if necessary.
It’s unclear who would be eligible for those vaccines, if they eventually get approved.
Moderna says it’s already working on one, which could be ready to ship by early 2022, if necessary. On Monday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that his company is waiting for more data before acting — but could have its version ready in 100 days.
Non-vaccine treatments could also be a mixed bag. Pfizer’s Covid antiviral pill, Paxlovid — which has yet to be approved by the FDA — might work against variants like omicron, because it’s designed to address spike mutations, Bourla said.
But fellow drugmaker Regeneron said Tuesday that its monoclonal antibody cocktail, along with any other similar drugs, could be less effective against omicron than other variants. The company said it’s exploring other alternatives.
Should you wait on getting a booster until there’s an omicron-specific shot?
No. Get your booster as soon as you’re eligible, regardless of any omicron developments.
Even partial protection is better than no protection, and the longer you wait, the more you risk getting infected by another Covid variant — including delta, which remains dangerous.
Plus, if the current Covid vaccines prove effective against the new variant, omicron-specific shots may never be deemed necessary. Waiting for that answer is a gamble akin to playing “mind games,” Fauci told “Meet the Press.”
In a statement on Monday, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky specifically cited omicron as a reason why eligible people should get their boosters. Since the booster shot lifts your body’s level of antibodies high enough to protect against every other known variant, it should give you “at least some degree, and maybe a lot of protection” against omicron, Fauci said.
What should you do differently to protect yourself against omicron?
Getting vaccinated and boosted, plus wearing a mask in public indoor settings, remain the best ways to protect yourself and the people around you.
“Do not pull back on your guard,” Fauci told NBC’s “Weekend TODAY.”
On Monday, the Biden administration restricted most air travel from South Africa and seven other countries: Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Travel bans cannot completely prevent the virus from entering the country, but they “delay it enough to get us better prepared,” Fauci said. Lockdowns aren’t currently being discussed, Biden said Monday.
Even if omicron gets bad, it probably won’t undo the world’s Covid-fighting progress.
Tests can easily detect omicron, promising therapeutics like the antiviral pills are on the horizon and scientists know much more about the disease than they did in March 2020, Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, tweeted on Sunday.
Dr. Obiageli Amadiobi, director general, National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP), has expressed displeasure over the level of Intellectual Property Right (IPR) losses by Nigerian researchers due to insufficient knowledge of the benefits of IPR protection.
Speaking at a one-day Coordinator’s Forum organized by the Office in Uyo for the South-South geopolitical zone of the country, the Director General, represented by Mrs. Caroline Anie-Osuagwu, director of Technology Acquisition and Research Coordination (TARC) department, said that prior to the establishment of the Intellectual Property and Technology Transfer Offices (IPTTOs) in Nigerian knowledge establishments, Nigerian researchers had no deep knowledge of the importance of IP protection, hence losing their IP rights.
In a statement signed by Raymond Onyenezi Ogbu for the head, Public Relations and Protocol Unit of NOTAP, the DG advised researchers to always file for a patent each time they anticipate a breakthrough and avoid publishing before patenting, as any research work published in a paper is already in the public domain and can no longer be patented.
“IP rights are rights granted to a researcher or inventor by the government to have a monopoly over the financial exploitation of their inventions for a period of time to recoup the expenditure on their research undertaking”. the DG said.
She challenged patent owners to license or commercialize their inventions, adding that patents that cannot metamorphose into tangible products and services are not worth keeping, as they are liabilities to the owners.
The DG said that researchers with patented inventions can license their invention for royalty purposes or sell them outrightly to venture capitalists if they cannot commercialize.
“Over the years, the nation has depended on the consumption of products from foreign research, while Nigeria is blessed with skilled human resources but only needs to be strategic in their research understanding”.
“The aim of organizing the IPTTO coordinator’s forum was to interact with the coordinators, know their challenges and achievements, and encourage the centers that are not very progressive to strengthen their centers.” She added.
The DG stressed that while a number of centers are performing well, some are struggling to find their fit, occasioned by bureaucratic bottlenecks.
She expressed confidence in the ability of the research communities engaging in demand-driven and market-driven research to fast-track development adding that technology development is a product of research work, and knowledge institutions are duty-bound to engage in critical research to advance the IPR ecosystem in Nigeria.
Participants from the South-South Zone took turns to commend NOTAP for the impactful program and requested the Office to assist them with links to venture capitalists for the commercialization of their research results.
All the IPTTO coordinators presented their scorecards and were advised to get ready for the 2026 IPTTO ranking that would be organized by the Office.
A Nigerian tech enthusiast known online as the “tech queen,” Sapphire Egemasi, has been arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in connection with a massive fraud scheme targeting U.S. government agencies.
Egemasi, a programmer with an active Devpost profile, was apprehended around April 10, 2025, in the Bronx, New York, reports The Nation.
She was arrested alongside several alleged co-conspirators, including Ghanaian national Samuel Kwadwo Osei, believed to be the ringleader of the syndicate.
The arrests follow a federal grand jury indictment filed in 2024, which charged the group with multiple counts of internet fraud and money laundering. The crimes allegedly took place between September 2021 and February 2023.
According to prosecutors, the syndicate defrauded the city of Kentucky of millions of dollars by creating spoof websites that mimicked official U.S. government portals. These fraudulent platforms were used to harvest login credentials and redirect funds into accounts under the group’s control.
Investigators say Egemasi served as the technical lead of the operation. She allegedly designed the fake websites and managed the coordination of wire transfers.
Records show that in August 2022 alone, the group rerouted $965,000 into a PNC Bank account and funneled another $330,000 into a Bank of America account.
Before her arrest, Egemasi was reportedly based in Cambridge, United Kingdom, though authorities believe she previously lived in Ghana, where she may have forged ties with other members of the syndicate.
To mask the origin of her wealth, Egemasi claimed on social media and professional platforms to have held internships with multinational corporations such as British Petroleum, H&M, and Zara.
Her LinkedIn profile portrayed a polished image of a successful tech professional, while her social media accounts featured images of lavish vacations to destinations like Greece and Portugal —trips prosecutors allege were funded by illicit gains.
Egemasi and her co-defendants are currently in federal custody, awaiting trial in Lexington, Kentucky. If convicted, each faces up to 20 years in prison, hefty financial penalties, and likely deportation upon completing their sentences.
A former Executive Director at Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Abbas Muhammed Jega, has shed light on the financial dealings between Arik Air and Union Bank, revealing that the airline’s debt to AMCON was over N100 billion as of 2015 and remained unpaid.
Testifying as the third prosecution witness in the ongoing trial of Ahmed Kuru, former AMCON MD/CEO, and four others, Jega disclosed that AMCON acquired Arik’s loans from Union Bank and Keystone Bank, but not Zenith Bank, which was purchased after his exit.
According to Jega, AMCON discovered in a London meeting that Union Bank had sold them a guarantee rather than a loan, which was meant to cover foreign lenders in case Arik defaulted.
“We invited Arik to resolve the issue with Union Bank, but the arrangement disclosed by me never existed,” Jega said.
Jega attributed Arik’s inability to repay to over-trading, which led to their inability to service existing debts. He revealed that AMCON attempted to restructure Arik’s debt and even offered additional loan facilities to help the airline with working capital problems.
However, Arik failed to meet repayment obligations, prompting AMCON to propose two solutions: a debt equity swap and management control. Both options were rejected or delayed by Arik.
Under cross-examination, Jega confirmed that Kamilu Omokide and Captain Roy Ilegbodu played no role in the loan purchase or London meeting.
The matter has been adjourned to June 30, July 1, and July 2, 2025, for further cross-examination.
The case involves alleged financial misappropriation amounting to N76 billion and $31.5 million, with Ahmed Kuru, Kamilu Omokide, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Union Bank Ltd, and Super Bravo Ltd as defendants, presided over by Justice Mojisola Dada.
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