The financial markets and oil prices fell sharply on Tuesday after the head of drugmaker Moderna said existing Covid-19 vaccines would be less effective against the new Omicron variant. They were in the red despite reassuring comments from European officials and top executives of other vaccine makers who said all of the people infected are asymptomatic or showing only mild symptoms. Oxford University, too, said there’s no evidence that the new omicron variant defeats the vaccine it developed with AstraZeneca, contrasting with more pessimistic views put forward by some other shot makers like Moderna and Regeneron. BioNTech SE Chief Executive Officer Ugur Sahin said the current generation of Covid-19 vaccines probably will still protect against severe disease in people infected by the omicron variant. He suggested though the rate of infections may increase, symptoms will be mild. Merck also said its Covid antiviral would likely to be active against Omicron. European Medicines Agency (EMA) Executive Director Emer Cooke told the European Parliament that existing vaccines will continue to provide protection. Andrea Ammon, chair of the European Centre for Disease prevention and Control (ECDC), said the cases of Omicron so far confirmed in 10 European Union countries were mild or without symptoms, although in younger age groups. Major European stock markets, spooked by fears that vaccine resistance might trigger restrictions that would choke off a nascent recovery, were down nearly 0.5 per cent, having fallen as much as 1.5 per cent in early trade. In New York, Dow Jones and the S&P 500 opened in the red. “There is no world, I think, where (the effectiveness) is the same level we had with Delta,” Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told the Financial Times. “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'.” The University of Oxford said there was no evidence that current vaccines would not prevent severe disease from Omicron and that it was ready to rapidly update its shot, developed with AstraZeneca, if necessary. Lab tests Regeneron Pharmaceuticals said its Covid-19 antibody cocktail and other similar antiviral treatments could be less effective against the latest variant. News of Omicron’s emergence had wiped roughly $2 trillion off global stocks on Friday, after it was identified in southern Africa and announced on November 25. Yet Dutch authorities said the variant had been detected in the Netherlands as early as November 19, before two flights arrived from South Africa that were known to have carried the virus. Cooke said lab tests for “cross neutralisation” would take about two weeks. If there were a need to change Covid-19 vaccines, new ones could be approved within three or four months, she added. “Vaccination will likely still keep you out of the hospital,” said John Wherry, director of the Penn Institute for Immunology in Philadelphia. Moderna and fellow drugmakers BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson are already working on vaccines that specifically target Omicron. Moderna has also been testing a higher dose of its existing booster. But border closures have already cast a shadow over economic recovery just as parts of Europe see a fourth wave of infections as winter sets in. Bank of England policymaker Catherine Mann added to downbeat comments from US Fed Chairman Jerome Powell by saying Omicron could hit consumer confidence, which would not only weaken the British economy’s recovery but could also could push up inflation at the same time.