Vismita Gupta-Smith: Maria, speak to us about why it’s important to reduce transmission of Omicron. 

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove: It’s important that we reduce transmission of Omicron for a number of reasons. 

First, we want to prevent people from getting infected because there is a risk that you can develop severe disease. There are ways in which we can prevent that, but you are still at a risk of developing disease. And if you have underlying conditions or have an advanced age, if you’re not vaccinated, you could develop severe disease. Your risk is higher of developing severe disease.  

The second reason is that we don’t understand completely the impact of post-COVID condition or long COVID. So people who are infected with this virus have a risk of developing longer-term consequences, which we call post-COVID condition. And we really are only beginning to understand this. So there’s a lot to learn about this and your risk of developing post-COVID condition, of course, is dependent on your risk of getting infected in the first place. So you want to prevent that. 

Third, is that getting infected and having a huge case burden. This surge of cases that we are seeing with Omicron significantly burdens our health systems as well as other essential services that are operating. The large number of cases are really making it difficult for hospitals to operate, for services to be online, you know, public transportation, making sure we have groceries in our grocery store, schools, et cetera. 

And lastly, the more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change. So this virus is circulating at an incredibly intense level around the world for a number of reasons. But the more the virus circulates, the more opportunities the virus has to change. Omicron will not be the last variant that you will hear us discuss, and the possibility of future emergence of variants of concern is very real. And more variants that emerge, we don’t understand what those the properties of those variants may be. Certainly, they will be more transmissible because they will need to overtake variants that are currently circulating. They could become more or less severe, but they could also have properties of immune escape. So we want to reduce the risk of future emergence of variants of concern.

Vismita Gupta-Smith: Thank you, Maria. 

1. variant n. a thing that is a slightly different form or type of sth. else 变种；变体。例如：This game is a variant of baseball. 这种运动是由棒球演变而来的。

2. transmissible adj. 可传送的，可遗传的

3. immune adj. 免疫的; 有免疫力的

1. We want to prevent people from getting infected because there is a risk that you can develop severe disease. 

2. Your risk is higher of developing severe disease if you’re not vaccinated and you have underlying conditions or have a less advanced age.  

3. We understand completely the impact of post-COVID condition or long COVID. 

4. This surge of cases with Omicron significantly burdens our health systems and other essential services. 

5. The more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change. 

(T) 1. We want to prevent people from getting infected because there is a risk that you can develop severe disease. 

(F) 2. Your risk is higher of developing severe disease if you’re not vaccinated and you have underlying conditions or have a less advanced age. （正确表达）Your risk is higher of developing severe disease if you’re not vaccinated and you have underlying conditions or have an advanced age.  

(F) 3. We understand completely the impact of post-COVID condition or long COVID. （正确表达）We don’t understand completely the impact of post-COVID condition or long COVID. 

(T) 4. This surge of cases with Omicron significantly burdens our health systems and other essential services. 

(T) 5. The more this virus circulates, the more opportunities it has to change.