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Individuals with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 are
80% less likely to end up hospitalized than those with prior strains of the virus, according to a new study from South Africa.
The
pre-print study from the National Institute for Communicable Diseases found that Omicron has a 70% less risk of severe disease, although once a patient is hospitalized the risk of severe disease is the same as earlier strains. Scientists compared data on recent
Omicron infections to Delta infections between April and November.
The authors pointed out that the differences could be due to higher levels of immunization within the population in recent months than earlier this year, and not because of inherent differences in the variants. However, the researchers did control for factors like age, prior infection status and vaccination status.
So far, there has been only one confirmed death in the United States from the
Omicron variant.
The European CDC has reported that the overwhelming majority of cases in the European Union are asymptomatic or mild and cases in South Africa's Gauteng province, where the Omicron outbreak first began, are
already on the decline.
Comment: Given that the previous variants caused severe illness in a very small percentage of people, and the Omicron is 80% less than that, it sounds like what we're really dealing with is a common cold. And yet, governments around the world are only too eager to being lockdowns and more mandates.
.... crickets