 You're watching News Made Easy, I'm Anindya Chakravarty, 2022 is almost here and at least the first months are likely to be about Omicron variant of the coronavirus. But is it going to be only like any other flu virus that hangs about in the air around this time in winters and in some other seasons as well and causes what we call viral fever or a little bit of cough and cold or is it going to be like the Delta virus where we saw the entire medical system collapse, oxygen shortage, many people dying and many cases of severe illness which lingered on for very very long. We still don't know enough about that but we do know that Omicron is spreading very quickly but whatever we have in terms of early evidence from South Africa, USA, UK and even from India suggests that it is a much milder version of COVID than we've seen both in Alpha and especially in the case of Delta. And also evidence from South Africa where it was first discovered suggests that the peak arrives very quickly and the wave itself is short-lived, it goes up and then comes down very quickly but one doesn't know how it works out in other countries. Early evidence also suggests from India suggests that it is mild data from Delhi for instance from LNJP hospital for instance suggests that more than 80% of patients have a very mild disease many are asymptomatic have no symptoms at all some have mild cough very low-grade fever feeling of malaise and almost no one till now has required ICU or has required to oxygen support right extensive oxygen support. Even in the UK we know that the cases that we are seeing hospitalization has increased but not at the same rate as it took place during Delta many of the cases of hospitalization right now is with COVID which means that they were in hospital already but they've now acquired COVID which is the Omicron variant but that does not mean that they are feeling ill right now because of Omicron. So one of the reasons Omicron spreads so quickly is that it spreads very fast in the upper respiratory tract with in the human bronchus which is essentially what the connectors between your windpipe and your lungs right and the lung tissue itself. Some studies suggest that the rate at which the Omicron virus replicates in the bronchus is almost 70 times as fast as what we saw with the alpha variant the first SARS-CoV-2 virus and the delta variant so it replicates very fast and spreads very quickly because it's it's staying right here and will come out with your breath while you're talking while you're coughing and it's spreads very quickly because of that but it is less likely to affect your lungs why because the study shows that when it enters the lung tissue Omicron is very inefficient it doesn't enter the lung tissue that easily and also it replicates a 10 times slower rate than even the original SARS-CoV-2 so we know that the delta replicated very quickly in the lungs it affected the lungs much faster but Omicron is 10 times slower when it enters the lung tissue. Another thing that we're seeing is that Omicron is slow at causing cell fusion now what does that mean that means that and we saw that in the case of severe COVID cases that cells in the lungs stuck together which allowed the virus to move from one cell to the other replicate in it and move across very quickly that is slow when it comes to Omicron and delta on the other hand was very successful in causing cell fusion which made it a much more dangerous variant as of now health warning this is all based on early evidence it's all based on whatever we're getting from various countries as of now including evidence that's coming from India so this lower impact on lungs could be the cause for the milder disease that we're seeing when it comes to Omicron but one has to also understand that a disease which is mild actually propagates much faster virus that is causes milder effects propagates much faster why because when a virus or anything a bacteria enters your body sits there and if it kills you very quickly then it also dies right so it is unable to pass itself on to the next person but if it weakens your immune system enters there replicates you don't die then it is much easier for it to move on to other ones so when mutations like these occur they replicate much faster and they tend to wipe out competitors like delta or alpha variant and this has happened across the world as viruses evolve right and Omicron seems to be going that path as well and that is something that lot of experts say is a good sign because this means that the coronavirus or covid is just going to be another one of those flu type of diseases that exist in the air but it's not going to be lethal or very dangerous now but here's the thing Omicron's super fast spread is worrying why because let's say that there's a population of 100 people right and let's say that a virus which moves slowly relatively slowly like let's say it affects 20 people but it is very lethal it kills let's say 25 percent of people it infects and so 20 people infected out of 100 five will die but let's assume that there's another one which only kills 5 percent of people it infects and it infects all hundred it will still kill five people so that's the problem that when the spread is so quick even if it is less likely to kill people given that it will infect many more people maybe the number of fatalities number of serious cases might still be more or less the same and that is what is worrying about Omicron and as a recent report in the Mint newspaper suggests that covid as this new covid virus and we don't know whether that is just Omicron or maybe Delta is coming back in Mumbai already wards are filling up in Mumbai so there is a cause for concern because hospitalization has increased sharply and in a country like India where medical systems are very weak that is definitely a cause for concern and also as we know Omicron evades the current vaccines that we have the vaccine induced immunity it reduces sharply but there is evidence that if you get a booster then you're likely to likely to regain the immunity that you developed by getting a booster you'll get that against Omicron as well and the evidence as of now suggests that those who have been vaccinated they might get breakthrough infections but it's very unlikely that they will get a severe disease or be hospitalized or die of it so that itself is an important source of protection now what can you do it's spreading it's going to be there and we have to learn to live with the coronavirus various variants of it as we live with influenza which actually kills a lot of people mind you across the world well the number one thing as of now till we all develop immunity against various kinds of variants of the coronavirus masking is absolutely important and wearing your mask properly because remember if it is moving so quickly and it's aerosolized and it can be exhaled by people into the air very easily because it's sitting and replicating in the upper respiratory tract then you need to mask very carefully you have to ensure that your nose mouth and chin is completely covered use n95 masks increasingly doctors are saying that a double mask blow out to see whether your air is leaking because if it's leaking then as chances are there that when you inhale you will also inhale particles so try and reduce as much as possible try and create a tight fit around your nose and mouth area so that you do not breathe in from the sides because that kind of defeats the purpose of masking very important to be in ventilated air the areas because studies have shown that the coronavirus actually spreads social distancing actually does not help if you're in a closed room you could be very far away but if you're in a closed room and in the direction of the draft for instance in air conditioned room then there is a chance you could get it even if you're six feet apart so ventilation and masking these are the two most important things to control this and of course the standard hygiene protocols that exist yes people might say why how long are we going to continue wearing masks well we might have to for as long as these variants continue to threaten our populations that's the show today keep watching news clay keep watching these shows like us share our videos and i'll see you again in the new year