Omicron may seem mild, but we can’t ‘let it rip,’ experts say
Global News
Hospitals in many regions have been forced to cancel or delay surgeries to free up beds for the influx of COVID-19 patients.
Dr. Kieran Quinn says he’s noticed a shift in attitude among his friends, colleagues and community members during the Omicron wave of COVID-19, as preventive vigilance has eroded into resignation that infection seems inevitable.
The clinician-scientist at Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital says he can sympathize with this sense of pandemic fatigue as the Omicron variant rages across Canada, ushering in another round of public health restrictions and backlogged demand for tests and COVID-19 vaccines.
As Omicron gains a reputation as a “mild” virus variant, Quinn says he sees why some people might feel tempted to “let it rip” in hopes of moving on from the pandemic’s latest and in some cases most overwhelming wave.
But Quinn and other doctors say Canadians can’t afford to be so cavalier about Omicron, because while the risks of infection seem lower to some individuals, abetting the variant’s supercharged spread would have devastating consequences across society.
“We need to look beyond ourselves and protect those around us who are most vulnerable,” said Quinn. “Omicron is not going to spare those people if we throw caution to the wind and ‘let it rip.”’
Emerging evidence suggests Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness than previous COVID-19 strains, but Quinn said those relative differences still translate into absolute numbers that make the new variant’s impact on the health system anything but mild.
Britain’s public health agency released preliminary data last month that found people with the Omicron variant were between 50 to 70 per cent less likely to require hospitalization than those with the Delta strain.
But research also indicates that Omicron is several times more transmissible than its predecessors, Quinn said, adding that even if a smaller proportion of infected people need medical attention, the sheer volume of cases would overwhelm hospitals.