That could be made more complicated by the new omicron variant that has now made its way into at least 38 countries, including the United States. Michigan is one of the states where the delta variant is still making people sick and killing patients “at a rate we’ve never seen before,” according to a quote from a CNN article today.
“We have more patients than we’ve ever had at any point, and we’re seeing more people die at a rate we’ve never seen die before,” Jim Dover, president and CEO of Michigan’s Sparrow Health System, told CNN. Dover said most of those getting sick and dying are unvaccinated. He added that the next few weeks are sure to bring more of the same as winter gets underway and holidays approach.
Another variable is the omicron variant that scientists are scrambling now to get to know better. In a briefing presented by the Infectious Diseases Society of America, two experts on the front lines discussed what we know about omicron so far.
One of the concerns is the fact that it has undergone many mutations to this point, said Dr. Carlos del Rio, professor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, on the call. He said it first probably appeared in a person with a severely suppressed immune system that couldn’t shed the disease, and thus it stayed with that person and replicated and mutated.
“So, No. 1, it really emphasizes the importance of vaccinating the world,” del Rio said. The omicron variant includes multiple mutations, more than 32, and some have been associated with more efficient cell entry, he added.
How all those mutations together will interact is a question. Will it make the virus more transmissible? “The answer to that isn’t clear yet,” del Rio said.
What’s also not clear yet is if omicron will make people sicker than previous variants. “There’s no evidence of that yet. Some evidence from South Africa suggests that it is milder,” del Rio said. “But those cases initially were among young university students where COVID is generally milder.”
Julie Vaishampayan is Public Health Committee chair in Modesto, Calif. She said public health officials are taking steps to learn more about omicron, including doing more surveillance, identification and contact tracing to identify cases and learn what the variant is doing.
“There is so much we don’t know about this virus, and we need more science and information,” Vaishampayan said.
“As we’ve touched on already, one of the things we know is that we still have a lot of delta circulating around the United States, and [vaccinations] will work against both, we think,” she said. “It is the safest way we know to help immunity against diseases, including COVID and the delta variant, which is circulating wildly.”
