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No proof yet Omicron COVID strain worse than other variants, leading disease expert says

By Antonia O'Flaherty
Posted , updated 
A needle going into a woman's arm.
Experts are calling for calm following the arrival of the Omicron variant.(ABC News: Keane Bourke)
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A leading infectious disease expert has called for calm over the COVID-19 Omicron strain, saying there is not enough evidence to show it is any worse than previous strains.

Australian National University professor of infectious diseases and microbiologist Peter Collignon acknowledged concerns that vaccines may not be as effective against the variant, but said there was no evidence to base such a conclusion on.

He told ABC Radio Brisbane approved vaccines were still likely to be effective against Omicron.

"When you look at the whole world for the things that matter the most – which is death and hospitalisation – the vaccines have been very effective against all the variants that have arisen so far," Dr Collignon said.

An older, bespectacled fellow wearing a dark blazer sits in front of a bookshelf.
Peter Collignon says Australia is in a much better position now than it was 12 months ago.(ABC News: Tamara Penniket)

It comes after the World Health Organization designated Omicron, previously known as the South African strain or B.1.1.529, a variant of concern.

Its emergence prompted the federal government to announce hotel quarantine restrictions on incoming citizens and to ban foreigners travelling from nine countries in Southern Africa from entering Australia.

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'Don't let fear get in the way'

There are five confirmed cases of Omicron in Australia — four in New South Wales and one in the Northern Territory.

Dr Collignon said while there was a need to be concerned about variants, they also needed to be well-studied.

"At the moment I don't think we've got good evidence that the defences we've got, which is mainly our vaccines, or the severity of the disease, is any worse than we've seen before," he said.

He called for better criteria to justify travel bans, hotel quarantine and other pandemic responses.

"We need to have some more consistency, and particularly not, if you like, overreact to lower or middle-income countries compared to countries we have more to do with, like Europe and North America," he said.

Dr Collignon thought the amount of fear about the Omicron was "out of proportion to the risk".

"We're in a much better position in Australia now than a year ago," he said.

"We've got vaccines that are highly effective against all the strains this far … we are going into summer and we will have much less transmission over next six months than the next coming winter, which is my next main concern.

Given Australia was a recently vaccinated population, Dr Collignon said, immunity would be higher than it would have been if people were immunised six to nine months ago. 

But he said much remained unknown and that data needed to be collected and genomic testing carried out.

"But so far if the predictions of dire outcomes are true, I would expect we'd see far worse results on the preliminary data," Dr Collignon said.


Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia's vaccination rate strengthened its position in the face of new variants, and has tasked ATAGI with reviewing the timeline for booster shots.

He said the National Security Committee was discussing the variant and would not hesitate to take further measures, based on medical evidence, as required.

'A lot of differences'

Clinical epidemiologist Nancy Baxter told ABC News there was reason to be concerned, but not to panic.

"There's a lot of differences between this variant and the previous ones in terms of changes to the make-up of the virus," Dr Baxter said.

"And the places that it's changed are places we know from previous variants are dangerous spots — they either make the virus more transmissible, or make it easier for the virus to evade the vaccine or natural immunity from previous COVID."

Epidemiologist Catherine Bennett told ABC News there were encouraging signs about the variant, including that it was a mild illness, but there were also signs that the variant was more infectious.

She said further evidence was needed to determine the transmissibility and severity of the strain, and to find out how effective the approved vaccines would be.

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Posted , updated