As the numbers of covid positives grow, research continues to fully understand how the new Omicron variant works: recent studies (all not yet subjected to peer-review, i.e. not reviewed by other scientists) conclude that Omicron appears to be more likely to infect the throat, and less likely to infect the lungs than previous variants of SARS-CoV-2. This would explain both the greater contagiousness and the lower severity – the latter characteristic already highlighted in a South African study at the end of December which found an 80% decrease in the number of hospitalizations for Omicron compared to previous variants.
Above. “The different mutations in Omicron may have altered its ability to infect cells,” Deenan Pillay, professor of virology at UCL, told The Guardian. The new variant appears to attack the upper respiratory tract more, affecting the throat cells. When a virus replicates in the throat it is more transmissible, while if it is capable of infecting lung tissue (as was the case with the original strain of SARS-CoV-2 and its variants) it is potentially more dangerous but less transmissible.
Less serious. A study by the University of Liverpool’s Molecular Virology Research Group found Omicron-infected mice lost less weight, had lower viral loads, and contracted less severe pneumonia than those infected with Delta: another research conducted on hamsters Syrians came to similar conclusions, while a study by the Center for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow found that Omicron changed the way it enters our bodies, evading the protection given by two doses of the vaccine (which, however, appears to be, at least in part, restored by the reinforcement dose).
Protect yourself. “The results of these studies are reassuring, but they must in no way make us let our guard down,” warns James Stewart (University of Liverpool). The virus is still very dangerous for the most vulnerable subjects – such as immunosuppressed and elderly people – and even more so for those who are not vaccinated: if it is true that the vaccine does not prevent contracting the disease, it drastically reduces the risk of developing it in form. severe or fatal.