E-Paper
Omicron mild or less severe? What latest observations experts have made
According to scientists, the narrative that Omicron is mild has resulted in casual behaviour and led to the rapid transmission of the variant in the countries.
One and a half months into a fresh worldwide surge of the Covid-19 pandemic and experts are now of the opinion that it is wrong to term Omicron as a mild variant. The number of hospitalisation is fewer than what the countries saw during the earlier waves, caused by other variants. But that does not mean that the variant is mild, the World Health Organization said in its latest observation. The variant was first identified in South Africa in November and was said to be mild as it has not been causing severe illness. Now, with the number of Omicron cases going up across the world and the number of hospitalisation also increasing in some countries, experts are differentiating between mild and less severe and said Omicron is less severe but not mild.
Here are 5 things to know about the latest findings:
1. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Omicron is hospitalising and killing people just like previous variants and thus it appears to be less severe compared to Delta, especially those who are vaccinated.
2. Indian-origin scientist Ravindra Gupta, professor of clinical microbiology at the Cambridge Institute for Therapeutic Immunology and Infectious Diseases thinks that a benign Omicron is an evolutionary mistake and the next variant could be more virulent.
3. The impact of Omicron on elderly people is one of the big unanswered questions, scientists said. Its impact on young people and vaccinated young people is proved to be less severe.
4. According to scientists, the narrative that Omicron is mild has resulted in casual behaviour and led to the rapid transmission of the variant in the United States.
5. There are two pathways available to the virus. Dr Gupta said it is being studied why Omicron is choosing one pathway and not causing much damage to the lungs area. “It's a bit unclear. But it's very real and it's very related to what we call a tropism (behavioural) switch. The big question is why the virus is unable to use TMPRSS2. We are still trying to understand this… for some reason, Omicron's spike is less well processed or cleaved,” said Dr Gupta.
(With agency inputs)
