How dangerous is Omicron? In the face of reports that the Omicron variant of COVID-19 is ‘lighter’ than previous mutations, the World Health Organisation (WHO) warns that it is still a dangerous disease.
Omicron has caused significant hospitalisations worldwide, meaning that there is a heavy burden on the healthcare system and patients may not get the care they need, says Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, who works at the World Health Organisation.
Vaccination is incredibly effective in preventing serious disease and hospitalisation, but not as effective in limiting the transmission of Omicron, she adds.
Will everybody get Omicron?
Responding to the reports that ‘everyone’ will get Omicron and there will be herd immunity, Dr. Kerkhove is reserved, saying that the more that the disease circulates, the more likely it is that it will mutate further with potentially more dangerous variants. In addition, scientists do not yet understand the consequences of long COVID, meaning that it is important to avoid catching it in the first place.
She urges people to continue to take measures to avoid catching COVID-19:
- Wear a mask to cover the nose and mouth.
- Make sure that hands are clean.
- Avoid crowds.
- Work from home.
- Get tested.
UK drops COVID precautions
WHO’s advice appears to go against the UK’s latest decision to roll back most anti-COVID precautions. Eager to go back to normal, the government has ordered public servants to go back to the office and downgraded the disease from major incident status. How does this affect Cyprus? The UK is one of the biggest contributors to local tourism and the island expects hundreds of thousands of UK citizens to travel here when the weather improves.
In favour of the decision, the UK’s vaccination and booster levels are robust, but this doesn’t cover the risk of transmission to vulnerable groups. People with medical conditions that preclude vaccination may be more at risk if the government also drops the self-isolation rule for UK citizens who test positive for COVID-19. For the time being, mandatory mask-wearing is still in place in the UK, which would partially protect those who cannot build immunity towards the disease, but even this measure is expected to be dropped shortly.
Tough choices
In the third year of the pandemic, we still face the same tough choices: risk exposure to an unpredictable and dangerous disease by going back to normal or continue taking precautions until scientists discover a preventative solution that works to prevent transmission. Vaccination has proved to be an effective measure in preventing serious disease but doesn’t help much in preventing the spread of the Omicron virus, according to the experts. Dropping precautions in order to reach herd immunity is a high risk to vulnerable groups, who complain of medical apartheid and isolation.
In the pandemic’s disturbing and distorted reality, reaching the balance between the needs of the vulnerable groups and the needs of the immune groups may mean the difference between a society that can pull together in an emergency for the benefit of all, or a society that only cares for the chance to get back to normal no matter what the consequences.
