The COVID-19 Omicron variant that is spreading across the globe is “almost certainly” less severe than the virus’s Delta variant, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.
But Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, also cautioned during a White House briefing that Omicron is “clearly highly transmissible” — and it could take “several weeks” to get a handle on it.
“Real-world evidence is accumulating rapidly — literally on a daily basis — to allow us to determine increase in cases, possible increase in reproductive number, and the rapid replacement of Delta by Omicron in certain situations,” Fauci said.
“It’s too early to be able to determine the precise severity of the disease, but inklings that we are getting — and we must remember these are still in the form of anecdotal, but hopefully in the next few weeks we’ll get a much clearer picture — but it appears that with the cases that are seen we are not seeing a very severe profile of disease,” he said.
“In fact, it might be, and I underscore might, be less severe,” Fauci added.
Fauci also said early studies suggest that people who have contracted earlier versions of the virus may be more vulnerable to Omicron.
“There’s a study, again, from South Africa, which showed that there’s an increased propensity for reinfection among people who were previously infected with Beta or Delta to get reinfected more readily with Omicron rather than with Beta or Delta,” he said.
Fauci added that further preliminary studies could begin to paint a clearer picture of the Omicron threat as early as the middle of next week.
Meanwhile, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Jeff Zients said at Tuesday’s briefings that more Americans are getting vaccinated or getting booster shots against the virus.
Zients said 12.5 million new shots in the US last week, and 7 million boosters.
The Omicron variant is the latest strain of the deadly global pandemic to emerge, with the bug spiking in South Africa and now spreading throughout the world, including in the US.
Earlier this week, New York state officials said there are now at least 12 confirmed cases in the Empire State.
The variant is expected to spike over the winter, health experts said.
Also on Tuesday, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla acknowledged that Omicron appears milder than prior variants — but he expressed concern over how quickly it spreads.
“I don’t think it’s good news to have something that spreads fast,” Bourla told the Wall Street Journal. “Spreads fast means it will be in billions of people and another mutation may come. We don’t want that.”