Omicron variant symptoms 'unusual but mild', says South African doctor - WHO urges countries to keep borders open

Patrick Reilly
New York Post
Sat, 27 Nov 2021 00:11 UTC

© AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File

People wait to be tested for COVID-19 in Johannesburg on Nov. 27, 2021, days after the Omicron variant was reported.

The South African doctor who first sounded the alarm on the Omicron variant of the coronavirus said that its symptoms are "unusual but mild" in healthy patients — but she's worried the strain could cause complications in the elderly and unvaccinated.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a practicing doctor for 30 years who chairs the South African Medical Association (SAMA), said she believed she had found a new strain of the virus after COVID-19 patients at her private practice in Pretoria exhibited strange symptoms.

"Their symptoms were so different and so mild from those I had treated before," Coetzee told The Telegraph.

She called South Africa's vaccine advisory committee on Nov. 18 after a family of four all tested positive for the virus with symptoms that included extreme fatigue.

So far, she's had two dozen patients who tested positive and showed symptoms of the new variant, mostly young men. About half of the patients were unvaccinated, she said. None of those infected lost their sense of smell or taste.

"It presents mild disease with symptoms being sore muscles and tiredness for a day or two not feeling well," Coetzee told the paper. "So far, we have detected that those infected do not suffer the loss of taste or smell. They might have a slight cough. There are no prominent symptoms. Of those infected some are currently being treated at home."

She described one "very interesting case" involving a 6-year-old girl.

She had "a temperature and a very high pulse rate, and I wondered if I should admit her. But when I followed up two days later, she was so much better," she said.

Coetzee emphasized that all of her patients had been healthy, and expressed worry that elderly or unvaccinated patients could be hit by the omicron much harder -especially those with comorbidities such as diabetes or heart disease.

Comment: Given the reported mildness of the illness, we'll see.

"What we have to worry about now is that when older, unvaccinated people are infected with the new variant, and if they are not vaccinated, we are going to see many people with a severe [form of the] disease," she said.

The World Health Organization officially named the virus on Friday, skipping two letters of the Greek alphabet and choosing "Omicron."

There have been no confirmed cases of the new variant in the United States yet, but officials believe it may already be here. Two cases have been confirmed in the United Kingdom, which joined the US and European Union in issuing travel restrictions.

On Friday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and put a temporary halt on all elective surgeries in anticipation of hospitalizations.

Comment: A top SA adviser concurs:

"We're not going to have a severe epidemic" because of the Omicron strain, Barry Schoub, who heads South Africa's Ministerial Advisory Committee on Covid-19 vaccines, told Israel's Channel 12 on Friday.

The new wave of infections in the country "is going to be a lot less severe. There's a lot more immunity, more people are vaccinated," he added. About 35% of South Africa's population has been fully immunized so far, which is only a half of the government's year end-goal, but still much better than in most African nations.

When asked about Omicron's possible resistance to current jabs, Schoub insisted that "we can be pretty comfortable" on this issue. Initial data suggests that "the vaccine will still prevent serious disease. That, I think, we are pretty sure about," he said.

"How effective it will be in preventing milder disease - that, we've still got to understand," the virologist added.

Omicron was also "unlikely" to cause more severe cases of Covid-19, according to Schoub. In South Africa, "the great majority of the patients have been mild. In fact, there hasn't been a very substantial increase in hospital admissions so far."

Governments are already freaking out over this reportedly mild variant, prompting the WHO to plead with them to follow their regulations and keep their borders open.

The NYT published some remarkably unhysterical remarks on the variant, though seemingly in the interest of pushing vaccines:

"vaccines are expected to provide some protection against Omicron because they stimulate not only antibodies but immune cells that can attack infected cells... Mutations to the spike protein do not blunt that immune-cell response."

"And booster shots could potentially broaden the range of antibodies people make, enabling them to fight against new variants like Omicron."

"For now, there's no evidence that Omicron causes more severe disease than previous variants. And it's also not clear yet how quickly Omicron can spread from person to person."

Pfizer isn't so sure! Naturally, they wouldn't be adverse to another opportunity to mass vaccinate the planet, and make a killing in the process.

"In the event that vaccine-escape variant emerges, Pfizer and BioNTech expect to be able to develop and produce a tailor-made vaccine against that variant in approximately 100 days, subject to regulatory approval," they added in the statement.