What Kind of Impact Could We Expect From Omicran?

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Omicron seems to be associated with less severe symptoms, but hospitalization rate is almost as high as it was at the peak of the first wave. The more people who are infected with any coved variant, the greater the chances that it will mutate further and get new variants coming up. There's still always going to be a proportion of people for whom the vaccines do not work as well or whose immune systems don't respond as well to vaccination or infection. And you know this could, this could continue next winter as well. Sorry, gloom.

This week, the UK expanded its official Covid symptom list to 12 symptoms including sore throat, loss of appetite, and a blocked or runny nose. British scientists have long called for a broadening of the list, but the change comes at a time when free rapid tests have been scrapped, and the UK is seeing its highest ever levels of infection, according the the Office for National Statistics. Madeleine Finlay speaks to science correspondent Linda Geddes about why this has happened now, what symptoms still haven’t made the list, and what it could all mean going forward. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/sciencepod