Fauci: "It's almost certainly less severe than Delta"

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Anthony Fauci, director of the American Institute of Infectious Diseases, said that the omicron mutation almost certainly appears to be less severe than the delta mutation. In addition, he said that specific research results on how effective the existing corona vaccines are against omicron mutations will be released soon.

Correspondent Ahn Sang-woo.

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Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that Omicron is highly likely to be stronger than Delta in terms of contagiousness. 

But the severity of the symptoms said it was almost certain that the omicron was no worse than the delta mutation. 

Fauci said that tracking the number of infections and hospitalizations in South Africa showed a lower proportion of hospitalized patients than Delta. 

It spreads quickly, but in terms of severity and mortality, "Omicron may be less severe than delta."

However, he added, it is too early to make a conclusion as South Africa has a younger population, which means that hospitalization is less likely and it takes several weeks for severe symptoms to appear.

Also, Fauci said the results of a study on how effective the vaccine-formed antibodies are against omicron mutations will be available in a few days.

In the midst of this, the South African Medical Association said in response to the report that the number of children who are hospitalized for COVID-19 infection in their country is increasing recently. He said he was not hospitalized because he was more susceptible to omicron mutations.