Will OMICRON Wipeout COVID DELTA Variant and End the PANDEMIC?

Will OMICRON Wipeout COVID DELTA Variant and End the PANDEMIC?

🩺 Ask Doctor Hansen:

There has been some good news with Omicron, as there have been several studies showing that this new variant is less likely to cause severe infection than the Delta. On the flip side, Omicron is WAY more contagious.

By far, the most contagious COVID variant has already become the dominant strain in America, making up 95% of cases.

A study from Hong Kong found that Omicron replicates 70 times faster in human airways, but lung infection was less severe.
Although Omicron may not cause severe infection, it does cause more infections.

So will that translate into more hospitalizations?
Most likely, depending on how well the virus is controlled.

Recently, the CDC: updated its guidelines for the Covid isolation period, shortening it from 10 days to five days if you're not having symptoms.
This is because the likelihood of asymptomatic people transmitting the virus on days 6-10 after infection is much lower.

Especially when dealing with a variant that generally causes milder illness.
But the first 5 days are when it is highly likely to spread, so it has to be controlled.
This is how the virus eventually causes some people to end up in the hospital, in which there are record numbers right now. It spreads while flying under the radar.

Covid hospitalizations reached a record high of more than 142,000 about a year ago, then went over 100,000 again back in September.
It dipped to 45,000 in November but has gone up steadily since then. Last Monday, it was 71,000 hospitalizations.

At the same time, you have fewer available health care workers to take care of these patients
1) because they are catching COVID as well
2) more and more are quitting because they are simply burnt out.
So you have more ER visits and hospitalizations, with worsening staffing shortages, not a good combination.

Also, there is a concern that when it comes to toddlers, omicron infection might resemble croup, as more of upper airway disease, or possibly resemble RSV infection where it causes bronchiolitis, meaning inflammation of the small airways in the lungs. This might explain why we are seeing more hospitalizations in young children.

Now to some good news, in a new study, it looks like infection with Omicron helps people fend off future omicron and delta infections.
And if that is the case, and because Omicron is the most dominant strain, there is real potential that the pandemic could soon start to fade away.
This is based on a recent, yet to be published, yet-to-be peer-reviewed study that was done in South Africa.

At the Africa Health Research Institute, researchers took blood samples from 13 people infected with Omicron, all of them having symptoms. The researchers then took the antibodies from those blood samples, put them in a test tube, and mixed them with different covid variants, including Delta and Omicron. This is called a neutralization test. 7 of the 13 people were previously vaccinated, while 6 were not. The researchers then repeated this process 2 weeks after their initial infection.

The results showed something expected and something not expected.

What was expected was the antibody response to Omicron. The antibodies neutralized Omicron in the test tube 14-fold at the 2-week mark.

What was unexpected is that the participants developed some enhanced immunity against the Delta variant, with Delta neutralization increasing over 4-fold.

The researchers also showed that those previously vaccinated could mount a better neutralizing response against Delta, while the response in unvaccinated participants was more variable.
Was this a perfect study?
No. far from it.

Three main issues.
1) only 13 people, so super small study here.
2) I don't know who did or did not have a previous infection.
3) this study strictly looks at antibody neutralization, which only tells part of the body's immune defense story.

It is very possible that the Omicron infections simply amplified the existing immunity in the volunteers in the study, provided either by vaccinations or previous infections.
If that's the case, then it remains to be seen what will happen to unvaccinated people who get infected with COVID for the first time with Omicron.

But if further experiments confirm the findings in this study, that could mean that this pandemic will fade away.

In the short term, especially in January and February, Omicron will put a huge strain on economies and health care systems. But in the long term, Omicron Dominated world might significantly lower the number of hospitalizations and deaths, especially as Delta is pushed out.

Doctor Mike Hansen, MD
Internal Medicine | Pulmonary Disease | Critical Care Medicine

#omicron #delta #covid

[DoctorMikeHansen]

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[katiebeth]

I hope it does end. I have major COVID burnout (nurse) and I don’t know how much longer I can stay in nursing if the lack of staff continues

[HumanBeingWithFeelings]

Thank you Dr Hansen.
The only thought of this nightmare coming to an end gives me goosebumps. Let's hope this is the beginning of the end.
Please stay safe everyone!

[Maddie]

I hope the government uses this moment of hospital staff burnout to put together incentives by way of scholarships programs to encourage more people to go into medicine. We need more nurses, doctors and health aids. I hope they don’t go the old way and start recruiting from abroad and instead of investing in our people here.

[g.a.mendoza]

At the beginning of the pandemic, experts expected this to go on for 3 years at least. They’re right. We’re on the 3rd and hopefully it’ll decline tangentially.

[kowgirlnme]

I am so thankful I came across your channel about the time you started the Covid videos. I suffer from PTSD, and have anxiety and vertigo when I am anxious or having attacks. I did get covid early in pandemic. I was in Idaho, and my mother was passing away, when talk of Covid was beginning. About the time they became concerned about air travel, I had flown home from Idaho to Louisiana. I became sick. I did not go to hospital, because I was not really paying attention to the news, because I was grieving. I have never been so sick. I finally went to ER and was confirmed to have covid. I did not develope pneumonia. I can say I have never been so sick...I had started using my inhaler, when I felt the tightness in my chest..I thought it was my allergies (asthma). I came across your channel. Dr. Fauci and you, are the only ones I listen to. Listening to you has help me to handle the anxiety over this. Just having your calm explanations, with the facts, have made me feel better, because I understand the virus, and issues facing us all..Thank you for doing your channel about Covid...It has really benefited me, and I am sure many others..

[sxb]

Medical community are amazing people helping out in the front lines, but I don't see them getting the credit they deserve in the media, especially in these stressful times!

[mikebaker]

Unfortunately, I expect the pandemic of willful ignorance to remain long after COVID leaves the main stage.

[ghost_in_thekeys]

I’m a nurse sitting at home with Covid. My family household all has Covid including my 2 young children 5 and 15 months and husband Thankfully we are all doing well with mild symptoms. I’m fully vaccinated while the rest of my household is not.

[samuelrivera]

Delta has already been pushed out. It took Omicron 3 weeks in Houston to do that. It took Delta several months to accomplish the same feat.

[IloveJinnah]

Thank you for being there throughout the Pendamic in the past 2 years and guiding us all along the path of hopefully some recovery.

[HaleyMary]

I'd love to see the pandemic end by this summer. I miss going out and seeing my friends.

[VahanNisanian]

Yes, I have a feeling it will. And it parallels with Spanish Flu, in which the virus also got weaker and weaker in that case.

[kgurl]

Great news! My daughter graduated from nursing school a year ago and she was so happy & ready to finally realize her calling. Well now she's working in a well run hospital in Bend, Oregon. What she didn't expect was that due to covid fatigue + vaccine mandates in the healthcare industry many RN's quit leaving this hospital with only a skeleton staff of nurses .
It's not any better at any other hospitals in the area (oregon) or anywhere else I'm sure. She's a fighter who put herself through college & earned 2 four yr degrees in 10 years. She's no quitter but she never saw this coming...

[diannagerber]

I would say it's possible. Given it's rate of transmissiblility, it is possible to say it could run out of people to infect before it has a chance to mutate again.

[mikebaker]

Remember when you were in Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and/or Statistics in High School and asked "When am I ever going to use this?"

Every misunderstanding, confusion or disagreement about the pandemic is because too many people took that inexperienced teenage question too seriously.

[Mortzy]

I tested positive for Covid19 and Flu type B. I was vaccinated with J&J in April but didn’t get a booster. I’m going on my 5th day of symptoms and I can’t wait for it to be over.

[yvettedurbangirlsa]

My Partner and I have both had Omicron in December. Fatigue and body pain like flu and severe headaches. So have a few of our friends same symptoms. It doesn't go into the lungs. It apparently takes 3 months for your strength and energy to come back so my Doctor advised me no gym for 3 months. I live in South Africa. The ingenious people to South Africa aren't buying into vaccinations hence very low vaccine numbers. I've been tested for natural immunity after having contracted Omicron which is such a blessing 🙏 I absolutely love your channel ❤ Thanks Yvette

[wajeedahmohammad]

Happy New Year! Thank you once again, for your update! Looks like I will have to continue to keep you in my prayers! May God continue to protect your health from the VIRUS and your family! LOVE YA my brother. Peace and Blessings.

[NickBogdis]

In my opinion, I feel that we got lucky with this new varient. A roll of the varient dice could have made it more deadly AND more contagious.