I thought that that was–it was not an infinitesimal chance, but it also is not an 80% chance,” he said. “I said that there is a chance that there will be a new variant that is a fundamental shift, kind of like Delta to Omicron was. It really was more of just a informal discussion amongst colleagues, I think,” Barouch said. It was not an official consultation meeting, as far as I could tell. Ashish Jha, the Covid-19 response coordinator for the White House, for “just a informal phone conversation about my thoughts about immunity and variants and the chance of new variants emerging. Dan Barouch, director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, told CNN that he was one of those experts. Most believed that the odds would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 10% to 20%.ĭr. WHO says Covid-19 is no longer a global health emergency Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus attends an ACANU briefing on global health issues, including COVID-19 pandemic and war in Ukraine in Geneva in 2022. Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr.