Omicron variant more resistant to Vaccines, transmits faster but causes less severe Covid, major South African study concludes

Washington Post via MSN ^ | 12/16/2021 | Lesley Wroughton

[SeekAndFind]

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Omicron appears to cause less severe illness than earlier variants of the coronavirus but is much more resistant to the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine widely used in South Africa, according to a major private study of the variant.

The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who developed covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.

Discovery Health provided conflicting information about the size of the study. In the initial release, the company said the study was based on 211,000 positive test results in South Africa, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron. A subsequent correction to the release removed the word “positive” from the test results and said the change “does not affect any of the calculations.” Later information provided by a Discovery Health spokeswoman put the number of total cases at 78,173, of which 19,070 tests were positive during the “omicron period” from Nov. 15 to Dec. 7. The company did not respond to requests for further clarification.

The study found that the vaccine from U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and German partner BioNTech provided just 33 percent protection against infection, much less than the level for other variants detected in the country.

At the same time, the vaccine may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with omicron, the study found, describing that level of protection as “very good.”

The protection was maintained across all age groups, Ryan Noach, Discovery Health’s chief executive, told a news briefing. He said the disease may be less severe in South Africa because more than 70 percent of the population had already been exposed to the coronavirus.

[dangerdoc]

It’s interesting with Delta, we saw death rates start bumping up within 10 days of infection rate increases. I’m watching SA daily for a bump.

[BeauBo]

It does look good so far, that Omicron is likely much less severe than Delta. I am just cautious. If we should prepare for a big surge, time is short.

In South Africa, it is looking like far fewer Omicron cases end up in the hospital as compared to Delta (I’ve seen reports from 1/10th to 1/3rd, proportionally), and when they do, it is significantly briefer (2-3 day norm) and on average less severe.

Dr. Phaala, the senior medical official of the South African Government also noted that a segment of those hospitalized with Omicron would not have been severe enough to be admitted during the capacity constraints they had during their Delta wave.

I see reports today that while Omicron replicates much faster in the upper bronchi and throat than Delta (70x! probably contributing to infectiousness), it is only about 1/10th as effective at replicating in the lung cells, which may contribute to lesser severity.

[dangerdoc]

That is good news, I am on leave and didn’t do the daily COVID scrub.

We are seeing the end of our Delta wave in our area and it was brutal. We are due for some good luck.

I’ll run our numbers this weekend and look for trends, I think I’m seeing the first evidence of Omicron in the data.