SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Sacramento County Public Health officials have said the most recent COVID-19 surge due to the omicron variant is nearing its peak.
But, how often could there be new variants like this? ABC10 Health Expert Dr. Payal Kohli said there will be several more in the future.
Dr. Kohli said the rate at which we see new variants, depends on how many people get vaccinated and boosted.
When a large portion of the population doesn't, that allows the virus to create these new variants, according to Dr. Kohli.
"I think my biggest concern is that we're going to be getting one of the variants that's going to have complete immune escape," Dr. Kohli said. "In other words, so far we've seen that the vaccines still have some efficacy — obviously against delta, possibly even against omicron — in preventing severe illness."
"But my fear is that one of these new variants will really do a 180 on us and really escape the vaccine altogether. So, I really hope that science can keep up with trying to evolve as the variants evolve. I'm hoping our next round of boosters is specific to the variants," Dr. Kohli said.
Dr. Kohli said the best way for people to protect themselves is to get vaccinated, boosted, and focus on mitigation efforts like distancing and wearing masks.
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