John Edmunds says variant is ‘very severe setback’ to controlling Covid pandemic and that plan B ‘absolutely not an overreaction’
Cases of the Omicron variant could be spreading even faster in England than in South Africa, according to a senior scientific adviser, who warned that the variant was a “very severe setback” to hopes of bringing the pandemic under control.
Prof John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said that plan B measures announced by the prime minister were “absolutely not an overreaction” even if Omicron turned out to be milder than the current dominant variant.