Data coming out of South Africa, where the Omicron variant of Covid was first detected, shows the new variant appears more contagious but far milder than earlier strains of the virus.
"Omicron is extremely mild. The rest of the world has nothing to fear," Pieter Streicher, a research associate at the University of Johannesburg, tweeted. "SA has high natural immunity levels (70%+) and low vaccination rates (25% of the population and 60% of 50+ are fully vaccinated)."
The data suggest Omicron "may be the end of Covid (and of Covid vaccines)," author and former New York Times journalist Alex Berenson noted.
"South African physicians and hospitals have leaned in this direction all along. But now we have close to three weeks of data and they are saying so with increasing certainty. The lag from symptoms to severe disease is about a week. If large numbers of patients were going to progress to hospitalization or intensive care, they almost surely would have done so by now."
Omicron’s mildness is not the result of a highly-vaccinated population in South Africa. Only about 1 in 4 South Africans are fully vaccinated.
"What has not yet been said — and will surely NOT be by the media — is that assuming this data holds, Omicron’s emergence should end any and all vaccination efforts with the mRNA or DNA/AAV vaccines," Berenson added. "Their risk profile has been steadily worsening — one has yet coherently explained the synchronized rise in all-cause mortality in highly vaccinated countries. The Netherlands saw all-cause mortality 41 percent above normal (yes, 41 percent) in its most recent week of data. Only one of five of those deaths was Covid related."
Continuing to press for the vaccines for a virus "that appears to be becoming a cold for most people is horrendously bad public policy," Berenson noted. "Especially since the vaccines don’t appear to work very well against Omicron in any case. All that’s left now is to track the mess from the vaccines. Let’s hope it’s temporary."
1 of 6:#Omicron - Is this the end of the pandemic?
No restrictions will be needed to protect hospitals in any way in any country. Gauteng, South Africa has peaked with case levels similar to Delta, but with deaths expected to be 25 times lower. pic.twitter.com/5MoNJ6Txqo — pieterstreicher (@pieterstreicher) December 11, 2021
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