(TJVNEWS) According to Richard Friedland, chief executive officer of Netcare Ltd., the early days of the variant suggest there is absolutely no need to panic and that it might actually be a good thing, Bloomberg reported.
“If in the second and third wave we’d seen these levels of positivity to tests conducted, we would have seen very significant increases in hospital admissions and we’re not seeing that. In our primary care clinics it is mainly people under 30-years-old,” he said.
“So I actually think there is a silver lining here and this may signal the end of Covid-19, with it attenuating itself to such an extent that it’s highly contagious, but doesn’t cause severe disease. That’s what happened with Spanish flu.”
“We are seeing breakthrough infections of people who have been vaccinated, but the infections we’re seeing are very mild to moderate. So for health care workers who have had boosters, it’s mostly mild. I think this whole thing has been so poorly communicated and so much panic generated.”
Pre-eminent South African vaccinologist and Wits university’s Health Services Faculty dean Shabir Madhi corroborated Friedland’s observations.
“Omicron seems to be moving at a faster speed than delta, but at the same time, what seems to be happening is that our hospitalisation rate is somewhat more muted,” Madhi said.
There have been zero deaths from Omicron worldwide and in countries like the UK it hasn’t even caused anyone to be hospitalized.
Despite the fact that Omicron is proving to be significantly less frightening than when it was initially discovered, governments have moved ahead anyway to impose new restrictions and push draconian vaccine mandates on their populations, including NYC, where soon to be former Mayor de Blasio is imposing vaccine mandates on children and all small business employees
