What's the Severity of Omicron Compared to Other Variants?

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Early signs are that it's leading to less severity than earlier waves in south africa. But that doesn't meanhe the virusis evolving to be less severe. It could just be larger population immunity that's behind those effects. And another challenge is that we're doing this kind of early on in the wave, and there is the lag between infections and hospitalization and death. So it'll take some weeks to get a clearer picture.

Several weeks after the Omicron variant was first identified, it has quickly spread across the world. Early data are showing clear signals that the latest variant of concern is able to evade immunity and spread at a rate faster than any other variant to date. But many questions remain unanswered about the severity of infection, the protection afforded by natural and vaccine-derived immunity, and the impact Omicron could have on the global pandemic response. In this episode, we delve into the very latest studies to take stock of where we are so far and, in a Coronapod first, take on questions sent in by Coronapod listeners.

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