Rich countries can’t say they weren’t warned.

For almost as long as Covid-19 has been around, scientists, academics and campaigners have called on wealthy nations to share vaccines around the world — not only to protect people in those countries, but also to reduce the risk of new mutant variants emerging that could evade vaccines for everyone.

Those sounding the alarm have repeated the same mantra: No one is safe until everyone is safe.

Despite these warnings, this is exactly what appears to have happened, some of these experts say. The new omicron variant emerged in southern Africa with a large number of mutations that experts say may allow it to transmit more easily and possibly reduce existing immunity.

“Africa right now is essentially a superincubator,” said Andrea Taylor, assistant director of programs at the Duke Global Health Innovation Center, a leading authority on global vaccine supply.

And the emergence of a new variant “is exactly what experts have been warning about for months," she said. "We saw what happened with India, which gave rise to the delta variant. And we said, 'Look, this is going to happen in Africa where there is uncontrolled transmission.'”

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/omicron-linked-global-vaccine-inequality-experts-rcna6916

ROME—The CEO of drugmaker Moderna expressed worrying concern about how the world’s existing vaccines will cope against the heavily mutated Omicron coronavirus variant.

In an interview with the Financial Times published early Tuesday, Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel warned: “There is no world, I think, where [the effectiveness] is the same level… we had with Delta… I think it’s going to be a material drop. I just don’t know how much because we need to wait for the data. But all the scientists I’ve talked to… are like ‘This is not going to be good.’”

https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephane-bancel-moderna-ceo-says-omicrons-effect-on-vaccines-will-not-be-good

SYDNEY, Nov 30 (Reuters) - The head of drugmaker Moderna (MRNA.O) said COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to be as effective against the Omicron variant of the coronavirus as they have been previously, sparking fresh worry in financial markets about the trajectory of the pandemic.

"There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level . . . we had with Delta," Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel told the Financial Times in an interview.

https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/moderna-ceo-says-vaccines-likely-less-effective-against-omicron-ft-2021-11-30/