Professor Karl Lauterbach, a clinical epidemiologist who is in the running to be Germany’s next health minister, said early reports from South Africa that Omicron causes mild illness could make it a Christmas gift and may even speed up the end of the pandemic.
He suggested that it has so many mutations – 32 on the spike protein alone, twice as many as Delta – which could mean it is optimised to infect and be less lethal, in line with how most respiratory viruses evolve.
But it is early days, so the virus could still prove to outperform Delta and resist protection from vaccines and previous infections. And most cases have so far been in younger people, who experienced milder symptoms from previous strains compared to older adults.
Scientists have long-warned the coronavirus is unlikely to ever be eradicated but will instead transition into a milder cold-like virus. Pictured: map showing where Omicron has been spotted.
