UK study finds 'no evidence' of omicron having lower severity than delta

Washington Examiner ^ | 17 December 2021 | Daniel Chaitin, Deputy News Editor

[blueplum]

The omicron variant of COVID-19 shows no signs of being less severe than the delta variant, according to a new study in the United Kingdom.

Researchers with Imperial College London, who analyzed PCR test-confirmed COVID-19 cases in England between Nov. 29 and Dec. 11, said their endeavor found "no evidence of Omicron having lower severity than Delta," judged by looking at "either the proportion of people testing positive who report symptoms, or by the proportion of cases seeking hospital care after infection."....

....The Imperial College London team also reported findings that show "the risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant is 5.4 times greater than that of the Delta variant. This implies that the protection against reinfection by Omicron afforded by past infection may be as low as 19%."

The work has not yet been peer-reviewed, but it was presented....

[blueplum]

To be remembered: Omicron is barely 30 days old as far as western knowledge about it, spreading to over 57 countries in that time. So info is spotty right now and nothing is certain. What is being offered is a RO of 3+, given it's fast replication focused in the upper respiratory tract rather than deep lung and doubling of cases every 2 days until plateau.

This study deals with symptoms/hospitalizations since, obviously there is the single fatality as of now. I followed the link in the Examiner article and it leads to an Imperial College presser, which links to Report 49, which adds,
"For the first definition, we included all cases with a definitive negative S-gene Target Failure (SGTF) result and specimen dates between 29/11/2021 and 11/12/2021 inclusive. For the second definition, we included cases with a positive genotype result and specimen date between 23/11/2021 and 11/12/2021 inclusive.... the exponential growth rate of its frequency estimated to be 0.34/day (95% CI: 0.33-0.35) [2.0 day doubling time] over the study period from both SGTF and genotype data. The distribution of Omicron by age, region and ethnicity currently differs markedly from Delta, with 18–29-year-olds, residents in the London region, and those of African ethnicity having significantly higher rates of infection with Omicron relative to Delta....
"To estimate the impact of Omicron on vaccine effectiveness (VE) for symptomatic infection we used conditional Poisson regression... of between 0% and 20% PD2 and between 55% and 80% PD3 against Omicron....To assess the impact of Omicron on reinfection rates we relied on genotype data...Omicron was associated with a 5.41 (95% CI: 4.87-6.00) fold higher risk of reinfection compared with Delta. This suggests relatively low remaining levels of immunity from prior infection." [PD2=post dose 2; PD3=post booster]

I'll piggyback some HongKong data LINK

which reads:

"At 24 hours after infection, the Omicron variant replicated around 70 times higher than the Delta variant and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. In contrast, the Omicron variant replicated less efficiently (more than 10 times lower) in the human lung tissue than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may suggest lower severity of disease.
‘It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is not determined only by virus replication but also by the host immune response to the infection, which may lead to dysregulation of the innate immune system, i.e. “cytokine storm”,’ said Dr Chan. ‘It is also noted that, by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.’

[mewzilla]

Funny, I missed the part where people are now dropping like flies in the UK.

Also missed the part where admissions were for Omicron and not with...

Also, that the UK was doing genomic testing on every sample and not that WAG PRC crap.

[Bobalu]

Well, that’s it then boys, you can’t argue with a UK study! /s

[Paladin2]

Maybe we should just all wear three masks....

[mewzilla]

Somewhere in Hell, Hitler is smiling.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Government is the greediest, most corrupt and murderous force on Earth.

It is not even debatable.

Never believe anything emanating from a government-related institution.

[joethedrummer]

“Omicron is barely 30 days old as far as western knowledge about it, spreading to over 57 countries in that time.“

HOW on earth can this be?? I thought all this is being spread by UN-vaxxed people…. - Who, by the way, are BANNED from international travel.

??????

[DJ MacWoW]

Next FReepathon Starts January 1st

Please Support FR
Click The Pic To Donate.

[BenLurkin]

How “severe” is “Delta”?

[plain talk]

Too early to tell. Omicron is supposedly highly contagious. So we will know soon enough in Jan whether it is more or less severe.

[frank ballenger]

RE: Maybe we should just all wear three masks....
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Yeah. Three masks and three NEW Covid shots to include Omicron after all (despite Big Pharma saying last week “no plans for developing a shot for Omicron.”

They go by how much money to develop and distribute versus forgetting the whole thing if there’s no big profit coming.

By the way, I am one of the least adapted to mask life around. I steam my glasses with one breath, I feel like I’m putting my face into a plastic bag and suffocating and I feel like my ears are being pulled down and out (my head size for buying any cap is always bigger than “L” which I believe is for the small brained and low IQ average American of the past few decades——not my larger brain with Free Republic size intellectual reasoning storage and analysis space. So there.

[untenured]

At 24 hours after infection, the Omicron variant replicated around 70 times higher than the Delta variant and the original SARS-CoV-2 virus. In contrast, the Omicron variant replicated less efficiently (more than 10 times lower) in the human lung tissue than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, which may suggest lower severity of disease. ‘It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is not determined only by virus replication but also by the host immune response to the infection, which may lead to dysregulation of the innate immune system, i.e. “cytokine storm”,’ said Dr Chan. ‘It is also noted that, by infecting many more people, a very infectious virus may cause more severe disease and death even though the virus itself may be less pathogenic. Therefore, taken together with our recent studies showing that the Omicron variant can partially escape immunity from vaccines and past infection, the overall threat from Omicron variant is likely to be very significant.’

I’m not.a virologist, just a citizen with some understanding of the scientific method, including basic statistics. And I have not read the whole paper.

But if our choices are “more contagious, more serious,” or “more contagious, less serious,” the claims in your excerpt seem to support most strongly the second hypothesis. Everything else is “may,” “is likely,”

Consistent with what many knowledgeable people and by definition non-crackpot people have been speculating would eventually happen since the early days, this is evidence of the virus mutating in a more transmissible but less damaging direction.

In every way that should matter, except bringing the CCP to justice, it’s over.

[Jane Long]

👍🏼

Thanks for calling out the fearper nonsense article.

[MAGAthon]

“Researchers with ***Imperial College London***”

lying as always...

Sky UK (Comcast) omicron omicron omicron 24/7, but noticed a chryon today stating SIXTY-FIVE PEOPLE IN HOSPITAL IN UK WITH OMICRON. THAT IS 65 (SIXTY-FIVE).

have no doubt the public imagines it is thousands...and that they are all about to die.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

The Chinese Communist Party wishes to convey its gratitude to all you common-cold pandemic-hypochondriacs for making their biological-warfare victory possible.

[FrankRizzo890]

This variant hasn’t been out long enough! They’ll be DAMNED if they’re going to lose it this quickly!

[mewzilla]

CoupFlu has NEVER been about public health.

[MAGAthon]

also noting how, just as word was spreading online worldwide about hundreds of vaxxed athletes falling over, dying etc., we suddenly got sports teams in UK, US, Australia, etc, testing positive for “covid”.

ten English Premiership League soccer matches were just called off because of how “rampant” cases are! sure.

Jurgen Klopp, manager/coach of Liverpool soccer team, was on Sky UK (Comcast) today saying his 3 “covid”-positive players were double vaxxed & boosted, and all 3 were asymptomatic.
(btw I tried for ages to find the KLOPP video clip or any article reporting what he said - FOUND NOTHING.)

what’s the bet all, or almost all, the sports people suddenly said to be “covid” positive are similarly triple-vaxxed and ASYMPTOMATIC???

WHAT A PSYOPS. the protests need to escalate.

another suggestion I’ve heard which could be useful.
if there are mandates to stop unvaxxed entering premises, organise for a large number of like-minded people to attempt to enter bars/restaurants whatever at the exact same pre-determined time, and insist on police being called to settle the matter legally if they are not allowed in.

this could tie up an awful lot of police, who might tire of being forced to intervene.

[digger48]

You’ve got it!

Some of us knew it the first time we saw Possum Boy Fauci on TV

[mewzilla]

PRC...

Well, that was a Freudian slip, eh?