FULL CLAIM: "Omicron COVID Variant Found ONLY in Fully Vaccinated"
On 22 November 2021, the Network for Genomics Surveillance in South Africa identified a new SARS-CoV-2 variant called B.1.1.529. This variant presented an unusually high number of mutations, including 32 mutations in the spike protein. Some of these mutations are new, while others were already present in previous variants of concern, suggesting that this variant might be potentially more transmissible or resistant to COVID-19 vaccines. For this reason, on 26 November 2021, the World Health Organization classified it as a variant of concern with the name Omicron.
Following the WHO’s statement, false claims linking the Omicron variant to conspiracy theories started to circulate on websites and social media. Other posts suggested that Omicron spread particularly among fully vaccinated individuals and in highly vaccinated countries (see examples here and here). Some were even more explicit, like this article published in Gateway Pundit with the subheading “Omicron COVID Variant Found ONLY in Fully Vaccinated”.
It is false that all the reported Omicron infections occurred among fully vaccinated individuals, as the article in Gateway Pundit claimed. The article based this claim on the fact that the variant was first detected in four samples collected from fully vaccinated individuals on 11 November 2021 in Botswana. As of 1 December 2021, the viral genomic platform GISAID recorded more than 300 Omicron...
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