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‘Holding our breath’: Anxious wait to see full effects of Omicron

Millsy & Karl
Article image for ‘Holding our breath’: Anxious wait to see full effects of Omicron

The emergence of Omicron, the new strain of COVID-19 discovered in South Africa, could be more infectious but less severe than previous strains, a leading scientist says.

CSIRO Health Director Rob Grenfell told Gareth Parker pandemic viruses “tend to become less severe” over time, and that’s what we could be seeing play out here.

“But we certainly are holding our breath until we see how this virus performs against the antibodies that we’ve generated in vaccinated people,” he said on 6PR Breakfast.

Mr Grenfell said the strain appears to be coming more dominant over South Africa and other countries.

“What we saw with Delta for instance, Delta was much more infectious than Alpha and became the dominant strain, and it may be that Omicron is going to do the same to Delta over the next few months.”

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Image: iStock by Getty

Millsy & Karl
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