Omicron could have been prevented, says WHO's Soumya Swaminathan

Swaminathan said that the world had enough vaccines to inoculated people around the world

The World Health Organization's top scientist Soumya Swaminathan said that the Omicron wave, which has struck at least 63 countries around the world, could have been prevented.

Omicron was first detected in Africa, which has a poor vaccination record, with recent data saying that just 3 per cent of people in Africa had had at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

India's initial Omicron cases were reported in Karnataka in early December. Since then, the variant has spread to several states and the total number of cases reported has crossed 70.

Speaking to NDTV, Swaminathan said: "It was in the world's hands to prevent this if we had used the tools that we have equitably around the world."

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She added that the world had enough vaccines to inoculate people around the world. "Perhaps we could have reduced the chances of this happening," she added.

Swaminathan said that vaccine nationalism is one of the places where the world went wrong. "What went wrong can be described in many ways, including vaccine nationalism. I think every country's leaders wanted to protect their own people. But in a pandemic, you also have to keep in mind that if you are not protecting people around the world, the virus is going to change and come back in a different variant," she said.

Omicron was listed as a Variant of Concern by the WHO on November 26.

Raising an alarm over potential hoarding of vaccines, the head of vaccine alliance Gavi, which is leading UN-backed push to get the shots to developing countries, said that he's seen early signs that rich countries are beginning to withhold donations out of fears about Omicron, warning any new hoarding could lead to “Inequity 2.0.”

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