New Delhi: The third wave of COVID-19 pandemic is still on in India, driven by the Omicron variant.
But two months after the new strain of coronavirus was first detected in Africa, there is no doubt that the highly-transmissible Omicron is much less severe compared to previous variants of concern. For example, no one has forgotten how Delta wreaked havoc, especially in India during the deadly second wave last year.
Why has Omicron not led to serious infections, more hospitalizations and deaths?
According to leading virologist Gagandeep Kang, it’s because of a phenomenon called ‘epistasis’ where the background of mutations influences how genes actually work.
“When Omicron was first sequenced, there were a lot of concerns because of the number of mutations and also because we did not understand how a virus with so many mutations could have evaded surveillance around the globe. There are multiple theories about how Omicron came,” Dr Kang said while speaking in a webinar titled ‘Omicron: Enigma or End?’
In the beginning, it appeared as if Omicron had all the dangerous mutations seen in previous variants.
“We got really lucky with Omicron because of a phenomenon known as epistasis where the background of mutations influences how genes actually work. We wound up with the virus while it was capable of immune evasion of a level we have never seen before. But it did not result in the severity that we saw before. That’s not to say nobody got sick, but the proportion was less,” Dr Kang explained.
“When people talk about protection from contracting COVID, they must understand that it is nearly impossible for a mucosal pathogen. We have seen this flu, influenza. We are relearning those same things with SARS-CoV-2,” she said.
