A new California study says the omicron variant of COVID-19 is an eye-popping 91% less likely to kill those who get infected than the delta strain, federal public health officials announced Wednesday.
The clinical study from the sprawling Kaiser Permanente health system also showed omicron is linked to a 74% reduced chance of the need for intensive care, offering a glimmer of hope as the nation grapples with record caseloads and hospitalizations powered by the super-contagious strain.
“While we are seeing early evidence that omicron is less severe than delta... it’s important to note that omicron continues to be much more transmissible,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control. “The staggering rise in cases has led to a high number of total hospitalizations.”
Walensky said the study of about 70,000 patients in the Los Angles area suggests omicron is 50% less likely to cause symptomatic COVID. The study is preliminary but it was conducted with academic collaboration and funding from CDC.
When patients are hospitalized with omicron, they have much shorter stays in the hospital, with a median stint of just 36 hours compared to five days with delta.
Walensky, who spoke at a White House coronavirus task force briefing on Wednesday, said the study dovetails with clinical reports from South Africa, where omicron was first identified in November, and Britain. The fast-spreading mutation now accounts for 98% of new COVID cases in the U.S.
COVID cases have soared to above 1 million daily cases and even those figures could be a massive undercount due to the widespread use of at-home tests that are not included.
But there are already signs that the omicron wave is peaking in New York City and other places in the U.S. where it struck first, mirroring the pattern seen in Britain and South Africa.
COVID deaths have also been rising quickly but Walensky blamed that increase on delta because most people dying now likely contracted COVID several weeks ago.
Dr. Anthony Fauci outlined the medical treatments for COVID, noting that many more therapies are in the pipeline of Big Pharma companies.
He touted the effectiveness of Pfizer’s new pill to treat COVID, which is nearly 90% effective at preventing serious disease if taken early enough after infection.
Fauci also said scientists were working to systematically evaluate the potential effectiveness at fighting COVID of drugs used for other purposes, including the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin.