A six-tweet thread from a South African engineer sums up the apparent state of play: Omicron appears more contagious but far milder than earlier strains of Covid.
South African physicians and hospitals have leaned in this direction all along. But now we have close to three weeks of data and they are saying so with increasing certainty. The lag from symptoms to severe disease is about a week. If large numbers of patients were going to progress to hospitalization or intensive care, they almost surely would have done so by now.
Perhaps one more week and we will know for sure, but at this point it would be a stunning reversal if Omicron were NEARLY as dangerous as earlier strains. And the Omicronâs mildness is not because South Africa is highly vaccinated; only about 1 in 4 South Africans is fully vaccinated.
And, just in time for Christmas… Boris Johnson heaps more fuel on the Doom Porn Fire by announcing the first death in the United Kingdom attributed to the Deadly Omicron Variant.
https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2021-12-13/britain-says-omicron-accounts-for-40-of-london-infections