What to watch out for and how it differs based on vaccine status – NBC Chicago

Experts are prominent with the new COVID variant, as Omicron is now the predominant strain in the United States and the number of cases is increasing rapidly across Illinois and the country, and what many expect from the Delta variant. Says they have different symptoms.

Dr. Catherine Pauling, an infectious disease specialist and a member of the Immunization Implementation Advisory Board, Told NBC News Last week, cough, congestion, runny nose, and malaise appeared to be prominent symptoms of the Omicron variant. However, unlike Delta, many patients do not lose their taste or smell.

According to Pauling, the evidence so far is anecdotal and not based on scientific research. She also stated that these symptoms may only reflect a particular population.

Still, CDC data show that the most common symptoms so far are cough, malaise, stuffy nose, and runny nose.

However, some experts suggest that symptoms may depend on vaccination status and underlying health status.

Dr. Allison Arwadi, Secretary of Public Health at Chicago, said he was “quite confident” that the variant would bring more breakthrough cases and reinfections to people already infected with COVID. The severity of the case remains unknown, especially in vulnerable populations and unvaccinated patients, even though early breakthrough cases in the Midwest show mild symptoms.

“Based on the current situation, we believe that Omicron is less likely to be more severe than Delta. This is very good news, but we are still skeptical of the claim that the severity has dropped significantly.” Said Mr. Arwadi. “Great news. It doesn’t look like it’s sick than it is now, but I know many people feel that it’s not really sick at all. It’s still something. No. My team feels the data is showing. “

In New York, where cases continue to proliferate, ER, who became known on social media for his record of fighting COVID during a pandemic, said the breakthrough cases seen in booster shot patients were “mild.” I reported that I had experienced symptoms.

“Mild means mainly sore throat. There is a lot of sore throat,” Craig Spencer said. I wrote on Twitter.. “Also, some malaise, maybe some muscle aches. No breathing difficulty. No shortness of breath. All a little uncomfortable, but fine.”

Cases of people who were completely vaccinated with either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine but were not boost-immunized remained mild but slightly more intense.

“I feel more tired, have more fever, have more coughs, and are a little miserable overall. But I have no shortness of breath. I have no difficulty breathing,” he writes.

For Johnson & Johnson patients who were not boosted, he wrote a “terrible mood” patient with fever, malaise, cough, and shortness of breath, but did not require hospitalization or oxygen.

However, without vaccination, the symptoms were more severe.

“Almost all the patients I took care of had to be hospitalized in Covid but were not vaccinated,” Spencer wrote. “People with severe shortness of breath. People who have lost oxygen when walking. People who need oxygen to breathe regularly.”

Dr. Angelique Coetzee, a South African doctor who first issued a warning about the new strain, Told the BBC She had a patient around November 18th “Abnormal symptoms” that are slightly different from the symptoms associated with the delta variant..

“It actually started with a male patient around the age of 33 … and he told me he was just [been] He has been very tired for the past few days and he has these body aches and pains with a few headaches, “she told the BBC.

The patient had no sore throat, but more “sore throat”, but no coughing or loss of taste or smell. This is a symptom associated with previous coronavirus strains.

Coetzee said a COVID test of a male patient was as positive as his family, and that day more patients had the same type of symptoms that were different from the delta type.

Other patients she had previously seen with the Omicron variant also experienced what she described as “very mild” symptoms, and her colleagues added that she had noticed a similar case.

Similarly, in the first US case, the president’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the person was vaccinated but not boosted and experienced “mild symptoms.” He said he was.

modern CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC that the Omicron symptom reported in South Africa has a much younger and healthier population than European countries and the United States, so the pathogenicity of the subspecies in other parts of the world. He said it may not be a good predictor of.

According to the initial findings of Study by Imperial College London, UKBased on the reported symptoms, there is no evidence that the Omicron variant is less severe than the Delta variant.

A research team led by Professor Neil Ferguson said, “In this study, Delta is determined by either the percentage of people who have a positive test to report symptoms or the percentage of cases who seek hospital treatment after infection. No evidence of Omicron, which is less severe than that, is found. ” In a blog post accompanying the research.

The data include 24 hospitalizations for patients with suspected Omicron variants, and researchers state that “hospitalization data are very limited at this time.” This study has not yet been peer-reviewed.

Hospitalization is on the rise in Illinois.

Allan Spooner, CEO of Franciscan Health South Suburban Chicago, said on Monday that cases of COVID-19 in the hospitals of the system have quadrupled in the last three weeks (10% to 42%). He said that more than 70% of critical care centers are infected with COVID-19, of which 30% require mechanical ventilation.

“With the recent surge, doctors and staff are becoming more infected,” Spooner said. “It is exacerbating the already volatile staff shortage throughout health care.”

Rexbad, President and Chief Executive Officer of Southern Illinois Healthcare, reinforces a similar message.

“The best thing we can do is get vaccinated,” he said.

Budde said that 40% of medical beds in Carbondale Hospital are occupied by COVID patients. As with other healthcare systems, he said he would treat patients with COVID, and hospitals needed to draw resources from other parts of the facility and delay treatment of other parts, including patients with stroke and heart care. ..

“People are dying from this virus, which doesn’t have to die,” he said. “Imagine being a nurse, doctor, or caregiver who has to see and deal with this every day. The staff are exhausted. The nurses are exhausted. The doctors are exhausted. . “

Despite some reports of differences between Omicron and Delta, Chicago experts say it’s not enough to just look at the symptoms.

“The secret is that you can’t tell the difference between Omicron, Delta, Lambda, and Plain COVID from the beginning,” said Dr. Emily Landon, an infectious disease specialist and chief hospital epidemiologist at the University of Chicago School of Medicine. “Even influenza and the common rhinovirus cause most of our common colds in winter. Just looking at the symptoms does not tell the difference. For many, these symptoms are Overlapping. There is a lot of overlap in Ben diagrams like taste, ageusia, or COVID, which is more common than these others, especially at the beginning of the illness to see what kind of illness you have. No. I have to take a test. “

According to Landon, testing does not always tell you if there is a variant of Omicron.

“When you get a COVID test, they’re just looking for if you have a COVID,” she said. “They aren’t of any kind to figure out the exact strain of COVID. You have to do this, called a sequence. It takes a lot of time. It’s much more focused. Certainly it cannot be regained in 24 years. Time, and it is done only by specialized laboratories. “

Overall, the COVID symptoms reported by the CDC are:

• Fever or chills
• cough
• Shortness of breath or shortness of breath
• Malaise
• Muscle and body pain
• headache
• New loss of taste and smell
• sore throat
• Stuffy nose or runny nose.
• Nausea or vomiting
• diarrhea