"Omicron May Actually Accelerate the End of COVID-19"... Reasons Behind Emerging Optimism

"Infectious but Less Fatal"

On the 1st, officials at Incheon Airport are guiding people to the COVID-19 testing center. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] There is growing optimism that the recently discovered 'Omicron' variant of the virus could actually hasten the end of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The British Daily Mail reported on the 30th of last month (local time) that "Karl Lauterbach, the leading candidate for Germany's next health minister and a public health expert, mentioned that Omicron could be a 'Christmas gift' that accelerates the end of the COVID pandemic."

He argued that although the Omicron variant has more than 32 mutations in its spike protein, these mutations likely increase infectivity while optimizing the virus to be less deadly to those infected. He also stated that this characteristic aligns with the way most respiratory viruses evolve.

Additionally, doctors in South Africa, who first discovered Omicron, reported that "unlike previous variants, Omicron only caused mild symptoms such as headaches and fatigue, and not a single patient required hospitalization or died." Consequently, some scientists predict that as variants emerge, the fatality rate will decrease, turning COVID-19 into an endemic disease that is as mild as the common cold.

Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia, told TASS news agency in an interview that "having many mutations is not necessarily a bad thing," and that "it could slow down the transition speed of the virus from the moment of infection to lung invasion."

However, concerns remain that it is still difficult to determine the fatality rate of the Omicron variant.

Dr. Richard Lessells of the South African COVID-19 Variant Research Consortium argued that "the reason why Omicron-infected patients in South Africa have not become severe is because most of them are young and not enough time has passed for the disease to worsen to a severe stage."