I have a question about the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2. Has anyone reported someone contracting COVID-19 from it seriously enough to be hospitalized, regardless of vaccination status? Also does contracting the omicron variant and recovering from it convey resistance or immunity to other variants?
Update
So far the most I have come up with is what’s in this Associated Press article:
U.S. health officials said Sunday that while the omicron variant of the coronavirus is rapidly spreading throughout the country, early indications suggest it may be less dangerous than delta, which continues to drive a surge of hospitalizations.
and
Even if omicron proves less dangerous than delta, it remains problematic, World Health Organization epidemiologist Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove told CBS’ “Face The Nation.â€
“Even if we have a large number of cases that are mild, some of those individuals will need hospitalizations,†she said. “They will need to go into ICU and some people will die. … We don’t want to see that happen on top of an already difficult situation with delta circulating globally.â€
It’s an empirical question not an a priori one. If it is, it is. If it isn’t, it isn’t. Basically, what I’m looking for is one report of the omicron variant having produced serious disease.
https://www.thesouthafrican.com/news/breaking-new-data-latest-omicron-infections-hospitals-tshwane-6-december/
Shorter hospital stays still imply hospital stays.
The problem is scientists maybe over-extrapolating the South African experience so far to US. First, demographics — South Africa is significantly younger then the US. Second, most people in South Africa acquired “immunity†through natural infection; vs vaccination in the US.
It is a bit perturbing to see the CDC say only more research is needed and in the meantime, carry on with shots, masks, distancing and at home testing.
Over at the Singapore Health Ministry, they say no reported cases of death due to Omicron worldwide, mild symptoms so far, yet, its still early days and get your shots.
Of the two, I prefer the Singapore press release, much more factual.
The Tshwane hospital reported pts hospitalized with covid pneumonia and on oxygen. Look at the one CO put up or one to which I linked yesterday. We are pretty clearly seeing pts with prior infection get reinfected and vaccinated pts get infected but so far it seems milder but there are hospitalizations. Unclear if this is just because we are seeing a much higher percentage of young people right now being infected.
https://www.samrc.ac.za/news/tshwane-district-omicron-variant-patient-profile-early-features
Steve
This (from the same link) supports my intuition:
If the South African national health system is anything like BNH hospitalization there may not mean the same thing it does here.
Still, that’s useful information. Thank you.
That leaves my other question: does recovering from omicron confer the same resistance as recovery from other variants?
This article on the situation in South Africa is unfortunately not so sanguine.
https://www.voanews.com/a/south-africa-readies-hospitals-as-omicron-variant-drives-new-covid-19-wave-/6340912.html
“That leaves my other question: does recovering from omicron confer the same resistance as recovery from other variants?”
Too early to tell.
Steve
Each article coming out of South Africa sounds a bit worse. However a lot of it is still lumped together, raw numbers so not sure how bad it is other than that it is spending quickly. Need more time and someone needs to sort out the data between pts admitted solely due to covid and those who were already in hospital for another reason and tested positive. So far every report i have seen suggests mostly affects unvaccinated so far among those being hospitalized. Again too early to know if it will stay that way.
Steve
And it’s difficult to distinguish between susceptibility to omicron and susceptibility to omicron because you haven’t been exposed to COVID-19 or been inoculated against it.