Beyond O’Micron: How Can We Identify the Next COVID Version?

How will we identify new COVID variants in the future?

For this, a combination of different types of tests, surveys and surveillance is needed to stay on top of COVID and governments keep looking for new forms.

“PCR tests have been incredibly useful in tracking the emergence of variants,” said Professor Wendy Barkley, Head of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London.

How do PCR tests detect new COVID variants?

When you have a PCR test, your sample goes through three different PCR reactions in the lab – each looking for a different bit of COVID genetic makeup. For Omicron, one out of three reactions shows negative. If a new variant changes their genetic makeup, PCR testing is able to show that COVID is present and give an initial indication that it is different.

“Omicron was picked up this way and its spread was monitored through PCR tests across the UK,” Barkley said.

What does Omicron tell us about the future of COVID?

As we learn more about Omicron, changes may occur in the way we use vaccines and boosters to best protect the population.

If Omicron causes relatively mild infections in most people, especially those who have already had three or four doses of current vaccines, it becomes important for us to better identify who needs booster and updated vaccines. .

“The next big discussion will be about protecting vulnerable people in the future,” Barclay said.

How toxic will the next COVIvariant be?

Several studies are still underway to explain how the virus can mutate further or whether vaccines will work against it.

“It won’t be the last version we see and we don’t know the future features,” Barkley said.

“But thanks to the great uptake of vaccines, we have a good level of base immunity among the public and there is evidence that even a variant like Omicron has been vaccinated for an antigenic escape (the ability to escape from our immune system). Going reduces the risk of serious illness, hospitalization and death.”