I will start with this statement
“omicron having "much less severity"
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Omicron is showing no signs of being milder than Delta and it can re infect people 5 times more easily.
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Even though symptoms are milder, there will in the long term be close to 100% of the population being infected one or more times.
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This means that even if the Omicron virus is less lethal to any one individual in general, because everyone will get it this will result in a greater danger over the long term than former variants like Delta.
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From this link: “Omicron continues to show greater infectivity han the Delta variant, but with much less severity in terms of hospitalisations, ICU and ventilated patients.”
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https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/omicron-five-times-more-likely-reinfect-than-delta-study-says-2021-12-17/
Omicron more likely to re infect than Delta, no milder -study
By Clara-LaeilaLaudette
Dec 17 (Reuters) - The risk of reinfection with the Omicron coronavirus variant is more than five times higher and it has shown no sign of being milder than Delta, a study showed, as cases soar across Europe and threaten year-end festivities.
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"We find no evidence (for both risk of hospitalisation attendance and symptom status) of Omicron having different severity from Delta," the study said, although it added that data on hospitalisations remains verylimited.
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The protection afforded b ypast infection against reinfection with Omicron may be as low as 19%, Imperial College (ICL) said in a statement, noting that the study had not yet been peer reviewed.
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The researchers found a significantly increased risk of developing a symptomatic Omicron case compared to Delta for those who were two or more weeks past their second vaccine dose, and two or more weeks past their booster dose. The study involved AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
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Depending on the estimates used for vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic infection from the Delta variant, this translates into vaccine effectiveness of between 0% and 20% after two doses, and between 55% and 80% after a booster ose.
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"This study provides further evidence of the very substantial extent to which Omicron can evade prior immunity given by both infection or vaccination," study lead Professor Neil Ferguson said in ICL's statement.
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"This evel of immune evasion means that Omicron poses a major, imminent threat to public health."
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Due to Omicron’s high infectivity a percentage of the population who are genetically susceptible to Omicron will eventually make contact and suffer death or long-term health issues.
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As well aving almost all the population as incubators of Omicron, the likelihood of new mutations is greatly increased.
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Over the long term this makes Omicron much more dangerous than Delta or Alpha.
