BTW, dont buy the increased hospitalization hype being thrown around. I found the actual #rs. https://www.nicd.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Datcov19_National_Export-20211130.pdf
Post that on all of the manufactured numbers threads, please :-)
Those numbers from South Africa look pretty good, that Omicron is less serious and less fatal, than other variants of concern - apparently way less.
Botswana’s Acting Director of Health said that 16 out of their 19 cases were flat out asymptomatic, and the remaining three had “very, very mild” symptoms. (https://news.yahoo.com/botswanas-health-director-says-majority-150945144.html)
The Botswana sample is tiny, but in South Africa, omicron is already the dominant strain in the major city of Johannesburg, and there is barely a blip in hospitalizations, from their post-Delta lows.
It may be that Delta has already picked off the vulnerable, but it seems very likely that omicron is just mild.
It also seems to be extremely transmissible - the first variant able to displace Delta. One posting (from a guy on twitter, admittedly) reported that Delta had a 70% transmission advantage over the original strain, but Omicron is more like 500%.
The two big questions that are still unclear, are how effective is the immunity developed from Omicron infection against COVID generally, and what degree of protection do the vaccines provide?
If it is very mild, it may not matter much if the vaccines protect against it.
If it is effective in producing strong immunity against COVID, it might put a more rapid end to further waves of COVID.
It has already been detected in Canada, the UK and Australia; and is likely already in the USA. It will probably be in full flower for Christmas.