Studies add evidence that Omicron has infiltrated past vaccines, but can cause milder illnesses

“This news provides another potentially powerful tool in the fight against viruses, including variants of Omicron,” Biden said in a statement.

“To make sure we’re ready, my administration has already ordered enough of these drugs to treat 10 million Americans,” he added. “Vaccination and getting booster shots are the most important tools we need to save lives. But once this treatment is actually approved, and when tablets become widely available, from the pandemic It will be a big step towards a breakthrough. “”

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, also spewed out about this pill.

“Pills can be a lifesaver for everyone, both vaccinated and unvaccinated,” Forch told CNN.

“They will submit it to the FDA and hopefully we will take action on it soon.”

Delta hits hospitals hard

The delta variant remains the cause of the biggest problem as the United States approaches 800,000 deaths from the virus and Congress silently prays on Tuesday. Hospitals in some parts of the country are overwhelmed by cases. “You feel like you’re drinking from a fire hose that has no way to control that flow,” said Dr. John Hick, an emergency physician at Hennepin Healthcare in Minnesota, on Tuesday.

“I’ve been practicing in the emergency department for 25 years and all the shifts I’ve been working on lately seem to be the worst shifts in my career.”

Dr. Jessie Gold, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University in St. Louis, said many patients were hostile and made things worse. “Now people are yelling at you and telling you that you don’t know anything,” she said. “So it’s like a fire hose in a setting that hates you.”

Health leaders said they were afraid of a new wave of infectious diseases fueled by Omicron. And Tedros Adhanom Gebreyes, director of the World Health Organization, said countries need to prepare for it. “In reality, Omicron is probably present in most countries, even if it hasn’t been detected yet,” Tedros said in a briefing.

“Omicrons are spreading at a rate not seen in previous variants,” he said. “I’m worried that people may be dismissing Omicron as mild. Indeed, we’ve learned that we’re underestimating this endangered virus,” he said. Added. “Even if Omicron causes a less serious illness, a huge number of cases can once again overwhelm the unprepared health system.”

Valensky said the United States can fight it. “It’s more contagious,” she told NBC News. “And we see that in other countries it is rapidly becoming a dominant tension, but we now want to emphasize that we have the tools. increase.”

Vaccines are number one, and Fauci said US data released Wednesday confirms most of the news from South Africa.

“I’m going to talk about it tomorrow,” Forch told CNN. “It’s mainly from South Africa and the UK to make sure you’re listening.

“Two doses of Pfizer or Moderna dramatically reduce the protection against infection,” Fauci said. “But the somewhat encouraging news is that protection against hospitalization and severe illness drops from 93% to 70%, but when boosted, it returns to a fairly good level of protection.”

He called this a “very powerful debate” for people to get boosters.

Restoration of immunity by booster

“Omicron spreads very rapidly, and the usual double-dose mRNA we use, which is a vaccine, is not very effective against the infection itself, so it will be a challenge,” Fauci said. “But in the case of hospitalization, it’s pretty good, especially if you get a boost.”

Two South African studies covered the actual effects of Omicron. One is from Discovery Health, a leading health insurance company covering 3.7 million people in South Africa, looking at the medical records of customers in the first three weeks of circulation by Omicron.

The risk of hospital admission from Covid-19 was estimated to be 29% lower for adult Omicron infections compared to the original strain.

The two doses of Pfizer vaccine were 33% effective in preventing infection overall, but 70% effective in preventing serious complications including hospitalization.

“A fully vaccinated Pfizer client is 93% more likely to be admitted to a Covid-19 hospital when the Delta is circulating,” Shirley Collie, Chief Health Analytics Actuary at Discovery Health, said in a press conference. It was low. ” “But now, in the Omicron era, it has decreased to 70%. It’s a decrease. But it provides substantial protection against hospitalization.”

The team did not investigate the effect of the booster immune dose vaccine. However, the data also showed that Omicron causes milder infections than other variants.

“This wave of Omicron is very clear. Compared to the first wave in South Africa, the adult population has a 29% lower risk of hospitalization on a fully risk-adjusted basis,” said Discovery Health CEO. One Dr. Ryan Noach said. At the news briefing.

“In the pediatric population under the age of 18, hospitalization rates are 20 percent higher than in this first wave. 20 percent may sound important, but given the low hospitalization rates themselves, it really is. Is an increase of 20%. It’s small, only a few percentage points. “

In addition, the patient was not as seriously ill as he was in the early waves of the pandemic, he said.

“We believe that at this early stage, it is expected to be less serious,” Noachi said.

Richard Friedland, CEO of South Africa’s private hospital network Netcare, told CNN that similar impacts have been seen in his company’s hospitals and clinics.

“So far, and very early on, data from the last 30 days show that we have very mild to moderate Covid-19. Many cases are asymptomatic.” Friedland said.

“Many of these findings support what we see across a network of 49 hospitals, 10,000 beds and more than 60 primary care centers in South Africa,” Friedland said. “There is a small cohort of elderly patients with comorbidity who are hospitalized, but there is still no evidence that this mutation actually causes serious illness that leads to hospitalization and potential death.”

It is not entirely clear if the same pattern can be seen in the United States. In the United States, few people are exposed to the virus, and the vaccination rate is only about 60% of the population.

“Whatever it is, the disease does not seem to be as serious, whether it is inherently less pathogenic as a virus or has increased protection in the community,” Forch said. Jim Skiat on CNN. “And certainly Jim, given the doubling time, it will be dominant in the United States.”