23 ms·

That chart is misleading; the rise/spike in deaths is always delayed from the rise/spike in cases. It does seem like Omicron is less deadly than Delta. The big

• ls612 5y ago
  It is delayed, but not by a month. Remember the spike began around Thanksgiving, and it's almost Christmas now.
  • jader201 5y ago
    Are we looking at the same chart, or are you talking about some other data/country? That chart shows it spiking just days ago (~Dec 15) in SA, not on Thanksgiving. So it’s still too early to know the effect on deaths (though I still agree that it seems they won’t be as bad).
• nostromo 5y ago
  I'm glad it's more contagious than Delta, because Delta is much worse than Omicron. Sure, I'd rather we didn't have Covid at all, but that's not been a realistic option for quite some time now.
  • toolz 5y ago
    I can't wait until public opinion seems to catch on to the fact that we will never eliminate covid. It blows my mind that we see 100% vaccinated universities going back to online-only learning. What exactly are they waiting on?
    • tjs8rj 5y ago
      This is what a liability state looks like. Nobody gets sued for following the CDC, that same CDC that says you should never eat raw sushi or rare steak
      • tonyedgecombe 5y ago
        >that same CDC that says you should never eat raw sushi Pretty good advice in my opinion. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33095945 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-33095945
    • throwaway0a5e 5y ago
      >What exactly are they waiting on? Public opinion.
      • SamPatt 5y ago
        Imagine running an organization based on public opinion, especially an opinion so wide as the whole internet. Groupthink is so dangerous.
        • throwaway0a5e 5y ago
          Considering the details of the business they're in I don't think they have much choice other than to chart the course that enrages the fewest people even if that course is non-optimal.
      • dfxm12 5y ago
        If federal law makers cared about public opinion, they'd have declassified marijuanna as a schedule 1 drug [0]. They also would not have done the recent weapons deal with Saudi Arabia [1]. 0 - https://news.gallup.com/poll/356939/support-legal-marijuana-holds-record-high.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/356939/support-legal-marijuana-... 1 - https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/12/7/a-strong-majority-of-voters-oppose-the-us-arms-sale-to-saudi-arabia https://www.dataforprogress.org/blog/2021/12/7/a-strong-majo...
    • 5y ago
  • redisman 5y ago
    Is there any reason to think they’ll be mutually exclusive ?
  • ChrisRR 5y ago
    One doesn't replace the other. They're both still spreading in tandem
• nradov 5y ago
  Even in ICUs, very few COVID-19 patients are now placed on ventilators. It is considered a salvage therapy and survival rates are low.
• joshuahedlund 5y ago
  > because it's so significantly more contagious, that even though a smaller percentage of infected people will require ventilators, the absolute number will be high enough to overwhelm hospitals. This is a legitimate theoretical concern, however empirically it looks like South Africa's hospitalizations are peaking at slightly more than half their previous wave, with deaths on pace to peak even lower[1][2] [1]https://twitter.com/thehowie/status/1473642495095496704 https://twitter.com/thehowie/status/1473642495095496704 [2]https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/daily-hospital-surveillance-datcov-report/ https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covi...
  • gammarator 5y ago
    SA severity may not be representative because of greater prior immunity and a younger age skew.
    • joshuahedlund 5y ago
      Exhibit B will be the UK. Their cases started spiking about two weeks ago. So far their hospitalizations haven't budged and are even a bit lower than they were a month ago, less than a quarter of their pandemic peak[1] [1]https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/details/healthcare
      • nooneisanon 5y ago
        If you're looking at the UK the daily numbers for London (which is ahead of the rest of England, and the rest of the UK) are here: https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/ https://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas...
        • joshuahedlund 5y ago
          Thanks. Looks like you can filter my link by London as well, which shows hospital admissions have doubled in the last 10 days from about 1/6 to about 1/3 of the previous peak (though patients in hospital is lower at 1/4, possibly reflecting shorter stays but hard to say). London cases have continued spiking since but may possibly be peaking now (not sure how much lag there is in backdating reported cases here) so it will be interesting to see how much the hospital numbers rise from here.
• starik36 5y ago
  Didn't the doctor who discovered and documented Omicron state that it results in mild disease? Therefore, it won't require ventilators and thus won't overwhelm hospitals?
  • SketchySeaBeast 5y ago
    COVID in general results in mild cases for the vast majority. It's that sliver of the population that wont that's the problem.
  • zerocount 5y ago
    Yes, but nobody in a position to affect a country with Covid lockdowns and laws believed her. It seems like money and politics are running the show.
  • andybak 5y ago
    You seem to be talking in absolutes rather than probabilities.
• systemvoltage 5y ago
  False. Even accounting for the delay it's not as dangerous, check and numerous news channels today: https://data.spectator.co.uk/category/south-africa https://data.spectator.co.uk/category/south-africa
• deleted 5y ago
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