{"id":10943,"date":"2022-01-23T22:31:30","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T03:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=10943"},"modified":"2022-01-23T22:31:30","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T03:31:30","slug":"all-about-omicron","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=10943","title":{"rendered":"All About Omicron"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

In less than two months, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has\u00a0spread around the globe<\/a>\u00a0and caused a\u00a0staggering number of new infections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Omicron now accounts for more than 99.5 percent of new infections in the United States,\u00a0according to estimates<\/a>\u00a0from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The nation reported as many as\u00a0800,000 new cases a day<\/a>\u00a0in mid-January, more than three times as many as at any previous point in the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Scientists have been working overtime to study Omicron. Many questions remain unanswered, but here\u2019s what they\u2019ve learned so far.<\/p>\n

Infection and Incubation<\/span><\/h2>\n

Omicron moves fast. It spreads swiftly through populations, and infections develop quickly in individuals.\u00a0The time that elapses between when someone is first exposed to the virus and when they develop symptoms is known as the incubation period.<\/p>\n

\"Graph<\/p>\n

Research suggests that the original version of the coronavirus and early variants had an incubation period of about five days, on average. The Delta variant seems to move faster, with an average incubation period of about four days. Omicron is swifter still, with an incubation period of roughly three days,\u00a0according to a recent C.D.C. study<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/h2>\n

Viral Load<\/span><\/h2>\n

The amount of virus that builds up in someone\u2019s body is known as viral load. In general, people are thought to be most infectious when their viral loads are high.<\/p>\n

In a recent study<\/a>\u00a0of the Alpha and Delta variants, researchers found that people tended to reach their peak viral loads about three days after infection and clear the virus about six days after that, on average.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n
\"Omicron<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Whether Omicron follows the same pattern remains to be seen. In one preliminary study<\/a>, researchers found that Omicron infections were about a day shorter than Delta infections and resulted in slightly lower peak viral loads, on average. But the difference might be due to higher rates of pre-existing immunity \u2014 as a result of vaccination or prior infection \u2014 among the people who were infected with Omicron. Another research team found that among vaccinated people with breakthrough infections, Omicron and Delta produced\u00a0similar levels of infectious virus<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other data suggest that Omicron may not act like previous variants. Animal and laboratory studies indicate that it\u00a0may not be as good<\/a>\u00a0at infecting the lungs as Delta, but that it may replicate more quickly in\u00a0the upper respiratory tract<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The variant may have other unique characteristics, too. One small study found that antibodies produced after an Omicron infection seem to\u00a0protect against Delta<\/a>, but Delta infections offer little protection against Omicron. If the finding holds up, it means that Delta may soon have trouble finding hospitable hosts \u2014 and that Omicron is likely to replace Delta rather than co-exist with it.<\/p>\n

Severity<\/span><\/h2>\n

Omicron appears to cause less severe disease than Delta. In\u00a0one recent study<\/a>, researchers found that people with Omicron infections were less likely to be hospitalized, end up in the I.C.U. or require mechanical ventilation than those with Delta infections.<\/p>\n

One possible explanation is that Omicron is less likely to damage the lungs than previous variants. A variant that proliferates primarily in the upper respiratory tract may cause less severe disease in most people. One indication of reduced severity is that unvaccinated people seem less likely to be hospitalized with Omicron than with Delta.<\/p>\n

But Omicron\u2019s apparent mildness may also stem from the fact that it is infecting far more vaccinated people than Delta did. Omicron is skilled at evading the antibodies produced after vaccination, which is leading to more\u00a0breakthrough infections<\/a>, but vaccinated people are still protected from the most severe disease. Booster shots of mRNA vaccines are\u00a090 percent effective<\/a> against hospitalization with Omicron, according to the C.D.C.<\/p>\n

Still, doctors cautioned, although the variant may be milder on average, some patients, especially those who are unvaccinated or have compromised immune systems, may become severely ill from Omicron infections. And it\u2019s too early to know whether breakthrough cases of Omicron might result in\u00a0long Covid<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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This excerpt is from a longer article in the NYTimes<\/a>:\u00a0<\/div>\n
\u00a0<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In less than two months, the Omicron variant of the coronavirus has\u00a0spread around the globe\u00a0and caused a\u00a0staggering number of new infections. Omicron now accounts for more than 99.5 percent of … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":10944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[494],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Omicron-Graph.jpg?fit=249%2C127&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Qv5g-2Qv","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6095,"url":"https:\/\/www.mymedwellness.com\/blog\/?p=6095","url_meta":{"origin":10943,"position":0},"title":"Water Your Kidneys","author":"Will Clower","date":"July 9, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Waste treatment is the last thing you want to dig your hands into, and the first thing you NEVER want to fail. 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