Gamble: Vaccines Remain Best Bet Against All Variants of COVID-19

HOWARD GAMBLE
WHEELING — While the specifics on many things regarding the omicron variant of COVID-19, recently discovered in Africa, remain up in the air, a local health official says that getting vaccinated is the best way to protect oneself from variants.
Wheeling-Ohio County Health Administrator Howard Gamble said Tuesday that while the ultimate impact of the omicron variant is yet to be seen, the best protection against any variant strains — including the delta variant, which is likely still the predominant strain locally — remains the vaccine.
The four main COVID vaccines, available through Pfizer, Pfizer pediatric, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, provide protection against the baseline COVID virus, which provides blanket protection against its variants.
“Whenever a new strain of the virus has been detected, the question is, how well is the current vaccine and booster series protecting us against them?” Gamble said. “Right now, the vaccine we’re administering is for the original virus that was detected. Every once in a while, you’re going to see a variant of the original virus.
“The thought is that the original vaccine is protecting us from the original virus and although there’s a little bit of a difference between that, alpha, gamma, delta, this omicron, it’s still part of the original virus,” he continued.
“You’ll still have some level of protection from any strain that may come around.”
Gamble said that the continued hesitance of people to get vaccinated means there’s more opportunities for the disease to spread and take hold, mutating further. In Ohio County, 68.5% of those age five or older have been at least partially vaccinated, according to the state Department of Health and Human Resources.
“All vaccines, as we all know, are not 100%, … and not enough people were vaccinated against the virus as the vaccine rolled out,” he said. “We’re almost at one year and we’re still wrestling with issues of, ‘I’m not going to get it, I still have questions, I think it’s this and that.’ Whereas, we should have been over that by now, and in the high 80s or 90% vaccinated for a virus that is now a pandemic worldwide. We’re not there yet.
“As a result, we’re going to see different strains pop up, because the virus is circulating,” he added. “It’s finding new hosts. Not enough people are vaccinated so that it can’t find a new host easily and begin to burn out.”
Gamble had previously said that while new strains arise and circulate, the difference between strains is not notable to the average person. Many tests done, Gamble said, only indicate the presence or absence of COVID, and are not sent away to determine if a variant strain is present.
“The majority of our cases are a delta variant, but that really doesn’t change the variable,” he said. “We only have one (kind of) vaccine. You have a standard reaction to a positive — isolation, quarantine, monitor symptoms, and if you have to, treatment of symptoms. We have specific treatments, but there’s nothing new. There’s no … new vaccine to address this variant.”