Omicron versus Delta: Fauci breaks down what is known and what’s unknown

OMICRON is “clearly highly transmitted”, and most likely more than delta, Dr. Fauca said.

The expert in the infectious disease of the United States, Dr. Anthony Fauca, said on Tuesday, the new variant of Sars-COV-2 said, which has again closed the borders of many fresh countries of apprehension, it is certainly not Worse than previous variants, including Delta. Speaking with AFP, Fauci reiterated that a complete image of the new variant could take some time. However, some areas have become quite clear.

Here is what Fauca said:

Transmissibility: OMICRON is “clearly highly transmitted”, and very likely that it is more than delta, said Fauci.

Immune evasion: Is omicron better when evading the immunity of vaccination or prior infection? According to Faucai, the answer is yes. The evidence is epidemiological data from all over the world, he said. The results of the laboratory experiments that tested the power of the antibodies of current vaccines against Omicron must come in the next few days to a week, Dr. Fauca said.

On the question of severity, he said that Omicron certainly is not more severe than delta.

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“There is some suggestion that it could even be less severe because when you observe some of the cohorts that are being followed in South Africa, the proportion between the number of infections and the number of hospitalizations seems to be less than with Delta,” he said.

A more communicable virus that does not cause a more serious illness and does not lead to a wave of hospitalizations and deaths is the “best scenario”, while the worst would be if the highly transmissible variant also causes a serious illness. “I do not think he goes to the worst of the cases, but you never know,” said Fauci.

First informed of South Africa, the variant has been detected in at least 38 countries with the powerful existing vaccines that are questioned against this new variant. The variant, however, has not been linked to any death. The variant has more than 50 mutations and does not trigger the usual symptoms such as loss of taste or odor, respiratory difficulties, etc.