Despite huge surge, Scientists say Omicron variant signals a new, less worrying chapter of the pandemic

New Delhi (05/01/2022): Despite the massive Omicron driven surge in COVID-19, the scientists have signaled that a new, less worrying chapter of the pandemic could start soon.

Monica Gandhi, an immunologist at the University of California, San Francisco said, “The virus is always going to be with us, but my hope is that widespread immunity will quell the pandemic.”

Even though, the experts have cautioned that there is still a plenty of time for the situation to change, data from the past week suggests that a combination of widespread immunity and numerous mutations have resulted in a virus that causes far less severe disease than previous iterations.

Although, Omicron variant was identified just a month ago in South Africa, a study from there found that patients admitted to the hospital in South Africa during the omicron-dominated fourth wave of the virus were 73% less likely to have severe disease than patients admitted during the delta-dominated third wave.

Wendy Burgers, an immunologist at the University of Cape Town said, “The data is quite solid now that hospitalizations and cases are decoupled.”

One issue is the virus’ capacity to contaminate the lungs. Covid infections normally begin inside the nostril and unfold down the throat. A moderate contamination would not make it a lot farther than the higher respiration tract, however if the virus reaches the lungs, that is generally where greater extreme signs and symptoms occur.

Five separate studies in the past week suggested that the Omicron variant does not infect the lungs as easily as previous variants. Several elements seem to have made the omicron variant much less virulent, or extreme, than preceding waves of Covid-19.

While case numbers might be reaching records, Gandhi, at University of California, San Francisco, hopes Omicron’s combination of high transmissibility and mild infection might signal the beginning of the end. She pointed to another study out last week from Hong Kong, which showed that vaccinated patients infected with omicron generated strong immune responses against other versions of the virus as well. This, she said, might explain why case numbers peaked quickly in South Africa.

“When you start to see different kinds of data all pointing in the same direction, you begin to feel more confident that it’s going to hold up,” said Jessica Justman, a Columbia University Medical Center epidemiologist.