Omicron through the two ends of a telescope: Let's Compare the takes on the omicron Covid variant from two different financial news sources

Compare the takes on omicron from two different financial news sources.

First, CNBC's Morning Squawk daily email, December 23, 2021:

'Hospitals across the nation are preparing for another wave of Covid that could rival the early days of the pandemic as the highly mutated and contagious omicron variant rages. In fact, the director of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation told USA Today that new modeling shows the U.S. could see about 140 million new cases from January to March.
Peak new daily infections are projected to reach about 2.8 million late next month, according to the IHME, with less than 15% expected to be captured by testing. The U.S. has a total of 51.5 million reported Covid cases since the virus arrived in America. Reported cases topped 300,000 in early January of this year.

Oooh, scary!

Now the Wall Street Journal:

New data from Scotland and South Africa suggest people infected with the Omicron variant of coronavirus are at markedly lower risk of hospitalization than those who contracted earlier versions of the virus, promising signs that immunity as a result of vaccination or prior infection remains effective at warding off severe illness with the fast-spreading strain. (snip)

THEN WE HAVE THIS :

The University of Edinburgh study, drawing on the health records of 5.4 million people in Scotland, found the risk of hospitalization with Covid-19 was two-thirds lower with Omicron than with Delta. The new variant became dominant in Scotland last week.

A separate study published online by researchers at South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases similarly found people infected with Omicron were 70% to 80% less likely to need hospital treatment than people infected with earlier variants, including Delta.

That's why it is important to read VARIOUS SOURCES to come up with the truth. Often you don't get every information you need from just one source.

https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dls/locs/2021/12-03-2021-lab-alert-CDC_Update_SARS-CoV-2_Omicron_Variant.html

***Not my information***

What Laboratories Should Know:

There are no authorized, cleared, or approved diagnostic tests to specifically detect SARS-CoV-2 variants (Omicron or other variants). Currently, COVID-19 tests are designed and authorized to check broadly for the SARS-CoV-2 virus, not for specific variants.

The Omicron variant has a deletion in the spike (S) gene (Δ69-70). Some molecular tests with multiple genetic targets include a target covering the portion of the S gene where the deletion occurs. The presence of this mutation can result in an S-gene target failure (SGTF, also referred to as an S-gene drop out). The S-gene target will fail (return as negative) while other targets are expected to remain positive in the presence of this virus. SGTF can signal the need for sequencing to characterize the variant in a specimen.

SGTF has been observed in other variants and thus is not specific to the Omicron variant.

There was no obsession with determining what deaths were from Delta. And we have no way of verifying omicron on individual patients without genetic sequencing, which is not done on individual patients.

What we do have is death curves. And with this mild, gentle virus strain trending to predominance, those death curves are upticking.

Don’t forget, the DNC is not stupid. They know full well the only way to save the Mid Terms is to be able to declare victory over the virus. So they are preparing that narrative now with stories of mild symptoms, regardless of actual death numbers flat or rising.

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