WHO experts warned today, Tuesday, that relying solely on giving booster vaccine doses does not constitute a sustainable strategy in facing emerging variants, and they called for new vaccines that better protect against transmission of infection.

The WHO Technical Advisory Group on COVID-19 stated in a statement that "a vaccination strategy based on repeated booster doses" of available vaccines "is not suitable or sustainable."

The committee responsible for overseeing COVID-19 vaccines added, "There is a need to develop highly effective COVID-19 vaccines to prevent infection, transmission, severe forms of the disease, and death."

The group of experts viewed that "while waiting for such vaccines to be available and as the virus evolves, it may be necessary to update the composition of currently available COVID-19 vaccines to ensure they continue to provide the levels of protection recommended by WHO against infection and disease" caused by variants, including Omicron.

More than six weeks after detecting this variant in South Africa, data from several countries converge on two points: the transmission of the Omicron variant, which the organization considers a variant of concern, is faster than the previously dominant Delta variant, but it generally causes less severe forms of the disease.

However, it is not known whether the apparently lower level of risk is related to the characteristics of the variant itself or because it infects communities that are partially immune through vaccination or previous infections.

However, the Omicron variant is spreading at a rocket speed in many countries, with cases doubling every two or three days, which is unprecedented with previous variants.

Omicron's mutations apparently allow it to evade the immunity of virus antibodies, which may result in infecting a larger number of vaccinated individuals and reinfecting people who had previously contracted the virus.