CV and mad panic behaviour

[Mav]

Good  (and bad) news out of the UK: Omicron hospital risk is up to 70 per cent lower than Delta, UK says,, The Age.

The good news is that:

An individual with Omicron is 50 per cent to 70 per cent less likely to be admitted to hospital, compared with the Delta strain, the UK Health Security Agency said on Thursday (local time). They are also between 31 per cent and 45 per cent less likely to attend emergency departments with Omicron than with Delta.

The bad news is that:

However, data from the HSA also showed that while a booster improves protection, it starts to wane more rapidly than with Delta, and is 15 per cent to 25 per cent lower from 10 weeks after the third dose.

The agency also cautioned that the highly infectious nature of the variant could still lead to significant numbers of severe illness that squeeze the health service. Daily cases in the UK soared to a record of 119,789 on Thursday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who is waiting until after Christmas to make a final decision on new possible restrictions.
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It’s still unclear how the decreasing booster effect will factor into protection against severe disease. The current round of booster shots may still protect people from being hospitalised or getting severely ill, even as defence against infection wanes. UK officials want to see how that data develops before recommending a fourth dose, or moving toward a vaccine modified for Omicron.
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Israel has already announced it will give people aged over 60 a fourth dose over fears that a booster that has not been administered within the last three to four months has lower protection against Omicron.

It'll take time to figure out whether Omicron ends up being better or worse for us than Delta. Which will have the upper hand: the increased transmissibility and vaccine evasiveness or the decreased virulence? Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until the picture becomes clearer. But for now we can still hope that Omicron will be more like the flu. Footy season 2022 might still see a return to normal.