Omicron symptoms, Headache, Fatigue, Runny nose, Sore throat, Sneezing
https://covid.joinzoe.com
Fever, cough, anosmia less common
Headache, 65%
Fatigue, 65%
Runny nose, 65%
Sore throat, 57%
Sneezing, 55%
The Australia experiment
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/australia-push-ahead-with-reopening-amid-record-covid-19-cases-2022-01-03/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The%20Reuters%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=3-1-21&utm_campaign=3-1-21
Record infections
Plans to reopen economy
Prime Minister Scott Morrison
We have to stop thinking about case numbers and think about serious illness,
living with the virus,
managing our own health and ensuring that we’re monitoring those symptoms
and we keep our economy going
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/jan/03/all-of-us-are-going-to-be-exposed-to-omicron-queensland-chief-health-officer-warns
Queensland, chief health officer, Dr John Gerrard
Omicron, peak at very large numbers in late January or early February
We are expecting in the next few weeks very substantial numbers of people are going to be infected
I think we just have to assume that all of us are going to be exposed in the next few weeks
we can expect very large numbers of cases
and in the majority of cases,
the vast majority of cases,
the symptoms will be mild
So clearly the vaccine is working
Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk
What we’re doing is telling people to go and get vaccinated.
We have … given every Queenslander in this state the opportunity to get vaccinated
I’m now urging people in those Indigenous communities to ignore those social media posts and immediately go and get your vaccination
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant replication in human respiratory tract ex vivo
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1189219/v1
Omicron infects and multiplies 70 times faster than the Delta in human bronchus
Omicron variant replicated 10 times less in human lung tissue than the original SARS-CoV-2 virus
SARS-CoV-2 Omicron-B.1.1.529 Variant leads to less severe disease than Pango B and Delta variants strains in a mouse model of severe COVID-19
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.26.474085v2
Mice infected with Delta compared to mice infected with Omicron
Less severe clinical signs (weight loss)
Lower virus loads
Less extensive inflammation in the lungs
T cell epitopes probably conserved
Clinical consequences of infection with the
Omicron variant may be less severe,
but the higher transmissibility could still place huge burden upon healthcare systems
The omicron (B.1.1.529) SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern does not readily infect Syrian hamsters
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.12.24.474086v1
All other SARS-CoV-2 VoCs replicate efficiently in Syrian hamsters
In hamsters that had been infected with omicron, a 3 log10 lower viral RNA load was detected in the lungs
No infectious virus was detectable in the lungs
Histopathological examination, lungs from omicron-infected hamsters, no signs pneumonia.
The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.529 Omicron virus causes attenuated infection and disease in mice and hamsters
https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-1211792/v1
B.1.1.529 Omicron isolates
Immunocompetent and human ACE2 (hACE2)
Expressing mice and hamsters
Attenuated lung disease
Not as ill
Lower viral loads
SARS-CoV-2 receptor ACE2 and TMPRSS2 are primarily expressed in bronchial transient secretory cells
https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/embj.20105114
The hyper-transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant exhibits significant antigenic change, vaccine escape and a switch in cell entry mechanism
https://www.gla.ac.uk/researchinstitutes/iii/cvr/engage/news/headline_829358_en.html
https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_829360_smxx.pdf
Omicron, markedly decreased neutralisation in serology
In order
Three doses of vaccine
Immunity from natural infection (without vaccination)
Two doses of vaccine
Omicron, compared to Delta and Wuhan D614G
Titres of the Omicron variant in lung tissue,
were at least an order of magnitude lower at each time point compared to the other two variants
This is consistent with attenuated replication of Omicron in lower respiratory tissues as recently reported
Source