Not mild as thought, but deadly as Delta

Beijing city officials, on Wednesday, closed 60 subway stations-- over 10 per cent of Beijing's vast network and 158 bus routes in an attempt to rein in the spread of the highly contagious Omicron variant. Even if you had the original omicron you can assume you're still at risk of getting one of its subvariants BA.4 or BA.5. First came omicron, then came its highly contagious subvariant, BA.2. That subvariant gave rise to its own subvariants, whose share of new coronavirus cases in the United States is growing. The coronavirus is constantly mutating. While some variants seem to vanish, causing little ripples of surges in their wake, others have kept driving large outbreaks. Experts say a new form, BA.2.12.1, is spreading rapidly and will likely in the next weeks become the dominant form of the virus in the United States. There's no indication yet that causes more severe disease Read on, you will understand why it is so.

Infection from the Omicron variant of Covid-19 is not mild as generally touted, rather is as deadly as Delta, Alpha and other strains that claimed thousands of lives globally, finds a study. Omicron was first detected by South African scientists in November last year. It has previously been reported as more transmissible by a number of studies conducted in the UK, South Africa, Canada, and others, but less severe than other SARS-CoV-2 variants.

It was also reported to cause less hospitalisation and death. The highly contagious variant was found to affect the upper airways more than lungs, unlike Delta, causing common cold-like symptoms. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned several times that it should not be taken lightly.

But, the study led by the Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School found that the risks of hospitalisation and mortality were "nearly identical between previous waves of Covid-19." "Our analysis suggests that the intrinsic severity of the Omicron variant may be as severe as previous variants," the researchers claimed in the pre-print study, meaning not yet peer-reviewed.

Although there were reports noting Omicron's vaccine evading properties, the new study provided evidence that vaccines helped spare people from the worst impacts of Omicron. In the study, the team linked state-level vaccination data with quality-controlled electronic health records from a large healthcare system, including 13 hospitals, in Massachusetts.

They then performed a weighted case-control study to compare risks of hospital admission and mortality across the SARS-CoV-2 waves in over 130,000 Covid patients. The unadjusted rates of hospital admission and mortality appeared to be higher in previous waves compared to the Omicron period.

But, our findings suggest that after accounting for confounders, including various demographics, and vaccination status, "the Omicron variant was as deadly as the previous SARS-CoV-2 waves", wrote the researchers, including Zachary H. Strasse from MGH, in the study.

The team also acknowledged limitations in their report, including the possibility that the analysis underestimated the number of vaccinated patients in more recent Covid waves, and the total number of infections, because it excluded patients who performed at-home rapid tests.

Another study shows that the Omicron variants may burn themselves out in the next couple of months and the Delta variant might re-emerge, researchers claim. While Delta wiped out the variants that preceded it, Omicron has not eliminated Delta, said researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

After the original SARS-CoV-2 virus that first spilled into humans around more than two years ago, several variants followed: Alpha (first detected in UK); Beta (first detected in South Africa); Gamma (first detected in Brazil); Delta (first detected in India).

Last November, South African researchers detected the highly contagious Omicron variant, which has developed a variety of sub-variants that is currently spread all over the world. They also built a model, which predicts that Omicron is burning itself out while Delta is just biding its time. "Of course, there are a lot of factors involved, but our model indicates there could be another outbreak of Delta or another coronavirus variant this summer," warned Prof. Ariel Kushmaro at BGU. According to the model, it can be expected that the Omicron levels will decrease until eliminated, while the Delta variant will maintain its cryptic circulation. If this comes to pass, it "may result in the reemergence of a Delta morbidity wave or in the possible generation of a new threatening variant", the researchers wrote.