WEBVTT - As Omicron Spreads, It Could Take Weeks Before We Know More About the COVID Variant

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<v Speaker 1>It's Wednesday, December one. I'm Oscar Ramirez from the Daily

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<v Speaker 1>Dive podcast in Los Angeles, and this is reopening America.

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<v Speaker 1>There's still much we don't know about omikron, the new

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<v Speaker 1>COVID variant spreading through the world. We don't know if

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<v Speaker 1>it's more transmissible or most importantly, if it causes more

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<v Speaker 1>severe illness. Preliminary observations show that it could cause milder infections.

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<v Speaker 1>If so, that could be good as we get on

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<v Speaker 1>our way to the virus being endemic. Andrew Joseph, reporter

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<v Speaker 1>at stat News, joins us for the bottom line, it

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<v Speaker 1>will take weeks and more data before we know. Thanks

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<v Speaker 1>for joining us, Andrew, Yeah, thanks so much. Let's talk

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<v Speaker 1>about the variant that everybody is talking about right now,

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<v Speaker 1>omikron of COVID nineteen. Now, there's a lot of stuff

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<v Speaker 1>that we don't know about this. President Biden was speaking

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<v Speaker 1>the other day and said this is a variant of concern.

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<v Speaker 1>We shouldn't be panicking over this just yet. And that's true.

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<v Speaker 1>There's so much we don't know about it. Cheap among

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<v Speaker 1>things is we don't know if this variant causes much

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<v Speaker 1>more severe illness and people and that's what everybody's looking at.

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<v Speaker 1>It could be more transmissible, it could evade the vaccines

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit. All that stuff will bear out, and

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<v Speaker 1>it's going to take a couple of weeks, actually a

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<v Speaker 1>few weeks to really get more data on all this.

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<v Speaker 1>So this is really what we're talking about here, And

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<v Speaker 1>from what we're hearing from some doctors so far that

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<v Speaker 1>have been encountering this is that it might cause milder

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<v Speaker 1>cases of COVID. So, Andrew, what do we know about

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<v Speaker 1>this so far? Yeah, so some some South African physicians

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<v Speaker 1>who are actually seeing this have said that the patients

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<v Speaker 1>they've seen are generally mild cases. And that's true that

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<v Speaker 1>as of now. But I think a lot of experts

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<v Speaker 1>would say, like, you know, we need to see a

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<v Speaker 1>lot more patients to get any sense of what if

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<v Speaker 1>whether the severity of symptoms broadly changes, and so, yeah,

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<v Speaker 1>and we need a little bit more time to see,

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<v Speaker 1>you know, the trends and hospitalizations and death because COVID

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<v Speaker 1>for a lot of people is a mild illness and

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<v Speaker 1>so it could just be that these are the patients

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<v Speaker 1>they're seeing. The patients that the South African physicians have

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<v Speaker 1>reported seen have been generally younger who are as we

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<v Speaker 1>all know, are more likely to have milder illness. So

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<v Speaker 1>there's a couple other factors that play here, and we

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<v Speaker 1>just need to see i think, more patient data in

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<v Speaker 1>a little bit more time to know. Tell me about

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<v Speaker 1>the difficulties with all that, because let's say you get COVID,

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<v Speaker 1>you get a test, it's confirmed, you know, for people

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<v Speaker 1>that have mild cases are probably gonna stay home. Who

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<v Speaker 1>knows if that goes on to get sequenced by a

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<v Speaker 1>lab somewhere. Maybe some people just get sick and stay

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<v Speaker 1>home and never see a doctor or get tested, you know.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's so tough to pit the two, you know,

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<v Speaker 1>the variance against each other and see which one is

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<v Speaker 1>much more severe, right because so you know, a virus,

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<v Speaker 1>like everyone knows, is evolving and it can influence its transmissibility,

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<v Speaker 1>can influence how it reacts to like our immune responses.

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<v Speaker 1>But in theory, it can also become more or less virulent,

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<v Speaker 1>basically cause less or worse disease on average. That's a

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<v Speaker 1>really hard one to pick up and less you know,

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<v Speaker 1>if it's like dramatic change, like no one's going to

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<v Speaker 1>the hospital or everyone's going to hospital. You'll pick that

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<v Speaker 1>up more quickly, but if it's a subtle change, it's

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<v Speaker 1>really hard to pick up. And because there are so

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<v Speaker 1>many other things that influence patient outcomes, like you know,

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<v Speaker 1>if you're looking at a certain area, like what is

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<v Speaker 1>the rough age demographics of the people, do a lot

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<v Speaker 1>of people have underlying health conditions that make them more

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<v Speaker 1>vulnerable to COVID? You know, what's the health care capacity like?

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<v Speaker 1>And you know, and now there's the other thing that

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<v Speaker 1>we're seeing is that in a lot of places there's

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of population immunity out there, whether from vaccination

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<v Speaker 1>or prior infections, and so that might mean that if

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<v Speaker 1>you have that level of protection from past exposure to

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<v Speaker 1>the virus or from being vaccinated, maybe you can't block

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<v Speaker 1>the infection entirely, but you're going to have mild illness.

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<v Speaker 1>So this could be also be a relic of that

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<v Speaker 1>because South afris had pretty substantial waves of COVID already,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's the exact point, right that what we're seeing

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<v Speaker 1>in South Africa with them is they have had those waves.

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<v Speaker 1>This amicron variant is happening in younger people, so we

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<v Speaker 1>have yet to see how it really affects older people

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<v Speaker 1>or people that have those comorbidities. You know, there's a

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<v Speaker 1>lot still at play. That's why it's you know, everybody's

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<v Speaker 1>talking about it, but it is you know, there's no

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<v Speaker 1>need to panic just yet. We don't know enough about it.

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<v Speaker 1>And even with the Delta variant when we talked about that,

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<v Speaker 1>obviously that was responsible for some of the big waves

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<v Speaker 1>that we just had recently, even that when the jury

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<v Speaker 1>is still out on whether it caused more severe illness,

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<v Speaker 1>Delta's biggest threat was how transmissible it was. And and

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<v Speaker 1>actually transmissibility is kind of the thing that scientists worry

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<v Speaker 1>about most because a more transmissible variant will cause more cases,

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<v Speaker 1>and that's more illness and death than like even a

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<v Speaker 1>variant that causes just like a more severe disease like

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<v Speaker 1>on an individual basis. That's just the numbers game at

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<v Speaker 1>that point. Yeah, exactly. But to your point, Yeah, so

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<v Speaker 1>there were some studies and again this just kind of

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<v Speaker 1>goes how hard it is to study this if it

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<v Speaker 1>is a small difference, Like there were some studies that

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<v Speaker 1>showed countries had a higher hospitalization rates during Delta waves

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<v Speaker 1>and and you know a lot of doctors said the

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<v Speaker 1>patients they were seeing seemed to be getting sicker and

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<v Speaker 1>faster with delta, but other studies came to like to

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<v Speaker 1>find that there were no differences between delta and earlier waves.

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<v Speaker 1>So it's kind of yeah, it just kind of goes

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<v Speaker 1>to show that. Like, it's pretty hard to know for sure,

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<v Speaker 1>because these are difficult things to study in the environments

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<v Speaker 1>in which these variants are spreading in and the fact

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<v Speaker 1>that the variants are often spreading not at the same time.

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<v Speaker 1>As I mentioned, there's still a lot yet to know

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<v Speaker 1>about this. But let's say some of these things hold true.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's say people are getting much milder illness from this

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<v Speaker 1>new omicron variant. Could that be a good thing. Could

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<v Speaker 1>we be on our way to this virus being endemic

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<v Speaker 1>something we live with, something more of a common cold

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<v Speaker 1>rather than the pandemic that we're currently in in in

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<v Speaker 1>you know, high debts and and all that stuff. Could

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<v Speaker 1>this be something that is a positive almost I guess

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<v Speaker 1>we're moving past it now. If these cases really are mild,

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<v Speaker 1>or if a greater percentage of them is mild, let's say,

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<v Speaker 1>because it's probably not going to be, that would be

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<v Speaker 1>a great thing. Whether that means that the virus has

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<v Speaker 1>changed to become just like cosm older illness or because

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<v Speaker 1>it would show that prior exposure to virus or vaccination

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<v Speaker 1>is turning this from like what can be a really

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<v Speaker 1>serious infection into generally more of a mild infection. And

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<v Speaker 1>that's how we kind of move, as you said, towards

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<v Speaker 1>intimocity as opposed to like this acute emergency that we've

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<v Speaker 1>been in now for almost two years. Well, we need

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<v Speaker 1>more patient data. As you mentioned, it's going to take

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<v Speaker 1>a few weeks before we really start to see the

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<v Speaker 1>trajectory of what this variant is. It's popping up in

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<v Speaker 1>a lot of countries, I believe. The last time I

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<v Speaker 1>heard and this could change at any moment, right we

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<v Speaker 1>still hadn't had any cases in the United States, but

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<v Speaker 1>people are pretty much believing that it's going to be

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<v Speaker 1>here at any moment, or could already be here. So

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<v Speaker 1>just keep your ear out for updates on this. It's

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<v Speaker 1>nothing to worry about just yet. We still need more

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<v Speaker 1>data on all of that. Andrew Joseph, reporter at stat News,

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<v Speaker 1>thank you very much for joining us. Thanks so much,

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<v Speaker 1>appreciate it. I'm Oscar Ramiress and this has been reopening America,

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<v Speaker 1>don't forget that today's big news stories. You can check

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<v Speaker 1>me out on the Daily Dive podcast every Monday through Friday,

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