In places like South Africa and the United Kingdom where omicron has been spreading fast, Covid-19 cases have doubled every three days or less. This includes people who were previously infected or vaccinated against Covid-19.
“It’s the ability to evade immunity coupled with this really high transmission rate that are the two things that set this variant apart from all the rest that have come before,” said Andrew Pekosz, a professor of microbiology at Johns Hopkins University.
Omicron could therefore push the Covid-19 pandemic into its worst phase yet. Or it might not. It’s not yet clear whether these traits will drive up hospitalizations and deaths to record levels in the US and beyond, but epidemiological models show that omicron is likely to have a heavy toll this winter. Yet in South Africa, it appears that its omicron wave has already peaked without heavy casualties. How bad omicron gets also hinges on how people respond to it, particularly when it comes to getting vaccinated or boosted.
Researchers are now racing to understand the variant to anticipate its next moves, but it’s proving to be challenging. From its genetic origins to the way it infects people, omicron is unusual and perplexing. Through studying the genetics of the variant, scientists hope to get more clues about where it came from and potentially prevent the next variant from catching the world off-guard.
As people are traveling and gathering indoors for the holidays, recent data has confirmed the fears of public health experts: California and the Bay Area are seeing a sharp rise in coronavirus cases, positivity rates and hospitalizations.
Thank you for joining us during the Juneteenth Soul Festival. Check out the recap. Thanks again to all who helped make the event possible.
COVID-19 has become deadlier for Black Californians since the widespread availability of vaccinations, and vaccine hesitancy could be among the reasons why. People of other races, who have higher vaccination rates, have seen death rates rise, but not as dramatically.
