With growing evidence showing the omicron variant causes mostly mild symptoms and lower rates of hospitalization and death, more and more scientists are starting to wonder: Will the newest variant herald the beginning of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Omicron should not be underestimated. The variant, which has more than 30 mutations on the spike protein, is said to be at least twice as transmissible as the delta variant, which was likened in contagiousness to the chickenpox by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That has increased the probability of breakthrough infections even among the vaccinated. Research by Imperial College London recently showed that the risk of reinfection with omicron is 5.4 times greater than with the delta variant, as omicron largely evades immunity gained by past infection or two vaccine doses.
Despite that unsettling research, the symptoms that the omicron variant causes are said to be milder than those with the delta variant. Studies in Britain and South Africa have shown that omicron patients are 50% to 80% less likely to end up in the hospital.