Omicron milder?

[HereticFanjo]

I saw a clip on Andrew Marr where a South African doc was saying Omicron so far is wide spread but a mild illness. No hospitalisations that she has seen. She did say in 2 weeks the picture might be different but I feel a bit more hopeful that Covid is evolving towards common cold. Or am I delusional?

@EffOrfagain

On here it is assumed you will die

I don’t think that’s right. There are a few very prolific posters with severe health anxiety related to covid that make up a lot of those posts. Most people seem much more measured, and of course there are a few who go the other way and don’t accept anyone really gets ill or dies from covid.

I don't understand why all those people had seen a doctor though? I can't imagine contacting my GP if I had fatigue and aches unless it went on for a long while. Suddenly lots of young men had approached this doctor with these "mild" symptoms?

The same doctor was also having a go at the UK government for imposing the flight ban and red list restrictions on Friday by the way, so she has her own agenda for minimising this.

Suddenly lots of young men had approached this doctor with these "mild" symptoms?

Mild in medicine has a bit of a different meaning. I had mild covid but felt utterly shit. I agree that it must have been sudden onset crushing fatigue to send people to the doctor worried about the cause.

I hope so

It’s a bit early to know

Also isn’t there data on number of cases and hospitalisation rather than a Dr seeing patients?

Is it because testing isn’t high

Really hope so OP! I'll be watching the news with interest over the next couple of weeks. In the mean time I don't mind wearing a mask again.

@EffOrfagain

On here it is assumed you will die

Ridiculous.

@Fet2021duejuly2022

I’ve also heard of a separate doctor in South Africa saying he has lots of young people with it who are very ill or in intensive care.

Indeed but he said that virtually all of those patients were not fully vaxxed

It's too early to be able to state any opinion.

I also can understand why SA is going to err on the side of caution when talking about it. Given that the politicians understandably have expressed frustration that it felt as if they were being punished for their discovery. I suspect they are being careful what they say given how fast everyone shut down and their own statements about the impact on their country. I'm absolutely not suggesting they are not telling the truth but I can understand them playing cautious now.

I genuinely think the truth is noone knows yet. We won't know until frankly we have seen more people affected by it.

I empathise heavily with searching for absolutes (DF is going in for a genuinely life saving operation next week and I am trying for my own sanity to figure out how it might affect him). However noone knows properly just yet. We have no other option than to watch.

@Frazzled2207 yes and they are young so we don’t know how this will affect the older vaccinated or young (children) who are in unvaccinated.

@Nietzschethehiker

It's too early to be able to state any opinion.

I also can understand why SA is going to err on the side of caution when talking about it. Given that the politicians understandably have expressed frustration that it felt as if they were being punished for their discovery. I suspect they are being careful what they say given how fast everyone shut down and their own statements about the impact on their country. I'm absolutely not suggesting they are not telling the truth but I can understand them playing cautious now.

I genuinely think the truth is noone knows yet. We won't know until frankly we have seen more people affected by it.

I empathise heavily with searching for absolutes (DF is going in for a genuinely life saving operation next week and I am trying for my own sanity to figure out how it might affect him). However noone knows properly just yet. We have no other option than to watch.

Yes some excellent points. I hope your dad gets his operation safely

I've never stopped wearing masks etc and am double vaxxed. I'm certainly not going to be any way complacent. I think we're all just tired now so I'm clinging to any hope that things will get easier. Prepare for the worst but hope for the best has been a good strategy throughout🤞

Cases are down today according to graphs thread so I also hope this doesn’t change generally improving picture.

@MarshaBradyo isn’t that because it’s a Sunday and we don’t have the whole picture?

[quote Fet2021duejuly2022]@MarshaBradyo isn’t that because it’s a Sunday and we don’t have the whole picture?[/quote]
I think it would be against last Sunday

Seems over 65 are down so keep going with boosters

Fingers crossed 🤞

I hope you're right. MN is a very negative place at times, full of people thinking the worst and predicting full lockdowns when they may not even be necessary. I prefer to keep a balanced view, we know very little at the moment so it's really impossible to predict how it will pan out. No point in stressing right now anyway.

Dr Angelique Coetzee, the South African doctor who first spotted the new Covid variant Omicron, says the patients seen so far have had "extremely mild symptoms" - but more time is needed before we know the seriousness of the disease for vulnerable people.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59450988

@Lockheart

We just don't know yet. It may well turn out to be very mild and nothing to worry about beyond the usual. At the moment it's too early to say, however. Better to be more cautious than to ignore it and pretend it's not happening.

I heard it on both South African and European media there are some scholarly articles on the net which confirm fatalities are much reduced proportionately. Why ? I havent the faintest.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-59450988

Could you link a source for this please?

Yes op I was /am hoping the same thing, that this is actually what we have been waiting for,the mild version...

Its far too early to know whether the new variant causes mild disease or not.
It’s suspected that before the alpha variant was officially announced there were many asymptomatic patients and that it much later when people started getting severely ill that it was found.
It’s a waiting game really.

[quote Fet2021duejuly2022]@MarshaBradyo isn’t that because it’s a Sunday and we don’t have the whole picture?[/quote]
No, week on week, cases are down, hospitalisations are down and deaths are down :)

Most viruses mutate to become much less deadly and much more contagious. So yanbu.

Basically a super deadly virus will kill its host (or at least confine them to home) and so is less likely to get passed on to lots of people than a mild version of the virus that people take out for walks in crowds etc.

Which means that the milkd version becomes the dominant one in the population. Usually. 🤞