SAN DIEGO — President Joe Biden addressed the nation Monday to provide an update on Omicron.
“This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause of panic,” he said of the highly contagious coronavirus variant that was first identified in South Africa. “We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists and we’re learning more every single day.”
Omicron has officially been detected in at least 14 countries, including Canada.
“It's here in the United States, I'm pretty sure,” said Dr. Davey Smith, Chief of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health at UC San Diego. “It's just a matter of us finding it.”
Dr. Smith said his department is hoping to get a sample of the Omicron variant as soon as possible.
“We want to see whether or not the medications that we have for treatment of COVID still work... so those monoclonal antibodies everyone talks about, we want to test those," he said.
Dr. Smith said they also want to take blood from vaccinated people to see if it can still neutralize the virus.
“I think the vaccines will still be able to work - protect people from getting really sick and going into the hospital and dying," he said.
President Biden again urged everyone to get vaccinated and, if eligible, get a booster. It gives your immune system a head start if you do contract COVID because your cells will know how to recognize it. Unvaccinated people have immune systems that need more time to catch up.
“And that gives the virus time to make people sick and even die,” Dr. Smith said.
He hopes we'll know more about Omicron soon. And while research has been a worldwide effort, he’s proud to say that the San Diego science community has consistently been among the leaders in this area.
“We have lots of really smart people here who have jumped feet first into this pandemic,” he said.
WATCH RELATED: UC San Diego researchers looking for Omicron local case