Dr. Fauci says Omicron variant ‘almost certainly’ not more severe than Delta

Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday that early indications suggest the omicron COVID-19 variant is potentially milder than previous strains. 

Whilst little is known about omicron, Fauci told the Agence France-Presse (AFP) it “almost certainly is not more severe” than the delta variant. 

“There is some suggestion that it might even be less severe, because when you look at some of the cohorts that are being followed in South Africa, the ratio between the number of infections and the number of hospitalizations seems to be less than with delta,” the doctor said.

Fauci said that experiments testing the potency of antibodies from the various vaccines against the omicron variant should be available in the “next few days to a week”.

Fauci went onto say that it is “going to take another couple of weeks at least in South Africa”, to see the actual degree of severity of the omicron variant. The variant was first identified by doctors in South Africa.

“As we get more infections throughout the rest of the world, it might take longer to see what’s the level of severity,” he said.

The omicron variant has been found in one third of US states as of 5 December. Those states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Washington and Wisconsin, according to Reuters.

Many of the cases were found in people who were fully vaccinated, but those individuals reported only mild symptoms.