The New York Times says “vaccines are expected to provide some protection against Omicron because they stimulate not only antibodies but immune cells that can attack infected cells… Mutations to the spike protein do not blunt that immune-cell response.”

“And booster shots could potentially broaden the range of antibodies people make, enabling them to fight against new variants like Omicron.”

“For now, there’s no evidence that Omicron causes more severe disease than previous variants. And it’s also not clear yet how quickly Omicron can spread from person to person.”

New York Times: “The W.H.O. and scientists on multiple continents cautioned that very little is known yet about the Omicron variant, or about whether the dangers it poses will justify the fears it is stoking. South African scientists announced its existence on Wednesday, and the number of cases definitively identified, all of them within the past three weeks, is still small, under 100.”

“But the swift global responses demonstrated that after nearly two years of facing accusations that they were too slow and timid in tackling the pandemic, many policymakers would rather risk overreacting to a new threat than under-reacting.”

Stat: What’s known and unknown about Omicron, the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa.

Testing has begun to determine whether the Pfizer vaccine protects against a mutant strain of Covid-19 that first appeared in South Africa and has already made its way to East Asia and Europe, the Financial Times reports.

The WHO designated a new coronavirus strain as “a variant of concern” and named it Omicron.