Omicron may cause less severe illness, Fauci says, but more research is needed
Link copied
The nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, said Tuesday that the omicron variant appears to cause less severe illness — though he cautioned that the available data remains preliminary and anecdotal.
“Hopefully in the next few weeks, we’ll get a much clearer picture,” he said during a White House coronavirus task force briefing. “But it appears that with the cases that are seen, we are not seeing a very severe profile of disease. In fact, it might be — and I underscore might be — less severe as shown by the ratio of hospitalizations per number of new cases.”
The caveat, according to Fauci, is that the hospitalization ratios could be influenced by the fact that many of those in the hospital are young and stay for a shorter duration.
Severity is one of several key unanswered questions about the omicron variant, he said. Health officials are also studying its transmissibility and immune evasion. The evidence suggests it is more transmissible than previous variants, Fauci said.
As for immune evasion, a study out of South Africa found an increased propensity for reinfection among people infected with previous variants, he said. That suggests an evasion of immunity from other variants, though more evidence is needed.
Fauci said research is underway, with more information expected in the coming weeks.