Covid-19: How dangerous is Omicron?

The new variant of covid-19, Omicron, is spreading around the world. Just how infectious is the strain, and will current vaccines prove effective against it? Our experts answer your questions.

00:00 What is Omicron?
01:30 How dangerous is Omicron?
02:39 Will new vaccines be needed?
03:15 What are governments doing?
04:17 Is this new variant a setback in the fight against covid-10?

Travel bans and the Omicron variant are hurting southern Africa

[toughgiraffe]

In the words of the scientist that discovered it, it's extremely mild and there is no reason to panic at all, obviously the media and the governments will ignore this science as it doesn't create fear and profit

[RafalSB]

Why are we listening to a physicist and an economist talk about a disease? Their views are an educated guess at best.
You should've interviewed experts in the fields of epidemiology, virology or immunology.

[La-ehjk]

How many times did they say: "We don't know yet"

[La-ehjk]

Omicron more contagios but less deadly means the pandemic may be over pretty soon. But obviously some people don't want this to end.

[bobjackson]

At this stage they know almost nothing about it's danger, they are just guessing.

[purplegirl]

No I don’t let the media control me. It’s really worked out for me so far.

[AZ-evvp]

Fear mongering in The first 30 seconds because is really uncalled for

[marca]

Actually the world is NOT on edge. I’m not that worried until we get the results of the current research to see how dangerous this variant is

[MrToritani]

I'm from Japan. I think it was wise of our government to close the border as soon as possible, although some people blame the government for doing so. Once new variants cross the border it is very hard to stop them from spreading. We learned a lot for the past two years. I believe that this is the best way to minimize the impacts of COVID-19 on our health and economy.

[liverpoold]

Considering how poorly "The Economist" has been when it comes to the actual economy, this is just par for how far they have fallen as a "news" outlet.

[dashmanqq]

No you don't need to worry! Omicron is also known as the Mild Variant. Don't buy into all the media hype! Just keep following the normal steps set in place to avoid catching covid.

[lebowski_dude]

Nice bit of fearmongering. According to the doctor who first identified Omicron in SA, not a single person has been hospitalised or died with it.

[ruben]

2020: the world is coming to an end!!
2022: hold my corona. Ima end this worlds economy.

[DriantX]

We should be fine as long as it's not Omicron Persei 8

[brannon]

"We don't know but when has that stopped us?"

[patrickbenjamin]

More worried about more government overreach

[rosiekrupp]

Simple Don't watch tv you won't catch it

[redemrys]

The Economist is behind the curve on this

[benanderson]

Depends how much you hype it I suppose.

[farleysmoke]

How dangerous is it? It isn’t. The end