The CDC’s Dec. 14 weekly Tuesday morning briefing for top federal health officials attempted to digest the early results from studies in England, Denmark and South Africa of the COVID-19 Omicron variant. The scenario to be feared is the “triple whammy"—that an Omicron surge is layered on top of the still out-of-control Delta variant and a possible rise of seasonal influenza. In summary, the first studies indicate that Omicron infections are doubling every two days, that vaccine efficacy against infection is much lower, and serious infections are significantly reduced.
The English study from last week indicated that the infections were doubling every two to three days, but that the booster shots were having a much greater impact than the initial two-shot vaccines. The Danish study from Dec. 13 showed a faster doubling rate of every two days and indicated even lower levels of vaccine efficacy against infection. On Dec. 14, South Africa released their findings, showing that the two-dose Pfizer vaccine’s efficacy against infection was down to 33%, and against hospitalization, down to 70%. They also showed about 29% fewer hospitalizations with Omicron, compared with the viral strain that hit them in March, 2020.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the U.S. Omicron cases have gone from 0.4% of new infections on Dec. 4 to 2.9% on Dec. 11. New York and New Jersey are showing Omicron as 13% of new cases., and Houston Methodist’s hospital system reports 13% for new cases from Dec. 5-8. James Musser, the head of pathology and genomic medicine there, says that the report expected later today will show a figure of around 20%.
The large and persistent pockets of low nutritional and immune levels, that give rise to higher mutation levels, remain unaddressed. Until that Christmas spirit awakens to such a challenge, the CDC’s present advice is to ramp up the booster shots in the U.S. Presently, of the 200 million vaccinated Americans, 145 million of them have not yet gotten their booster.
