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The Office for National Statistics (ONS) have released the latest analysis comparing the risk of death in people infected by Omicron and Delta variants of SARS-CoV-2.
Dr David Strain, Senior Clinical Lecturer, University of Exeter, said:
“The Office of National Statistics have continued their excellent work in monitoring the true incidence of COVID in the community and the consequences thereof. These data highlight that even after adjustment for the high vaccination rate, the Omicron variant is less deadly than Delta. Additionally, the increased risk of a poor outcome for men, that has been seen in the original, alpha and delta variants, appears to have dissipated, causing an apparently greater reduction in the case:fatality rate in men compared to women.
“The important caveat however is this is still the data up until the end of December 2021, by which time they had only been 128 omicron related deaths in the UK. That being said, it is consistent with what we are seeing on the wards – there is no longer a gender disparity that we saw with Delta. The other important consideration, however, is that this is based entirely on the BA.1 strain of Omicron. There remains uncertainty whether this will also be the case for the BA.2 variant that is currently circulating in Scotland, and in some animal and laboratory studies has been suggested to associated with a more severe disease – but it is important to note that disease severity has not been shown to differ in well vaccinated populations.”
All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:
www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19
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