Don’t underestimate the Omicron variant

As the Omicron variant makes its way through the population of the UK, the Chief Medical Officer’s warning that we don’t know all that much about the variant, but ‘all the things we do know are bad’ was not what anyone wanted to hear this week. Unfortunately, Chris Whitty is right. The Omicron variant’s assault on the UK has been like a blitzkrieg so far, and it has left a trail of shock and confusion in its wake. It is no wonder that Sage have advised this week that more restrictions may now be needed to prevent a rapid rise in hospitalisations.

There is still a lot we don’t know about Omicron, but we have been able to build up a partial picture of the variant. From the outset, scientists were able make educated guesses about how Omicron would behave based on its mutations. One of these guesses was that the wall of immunity built up by vaccines and infections would be less effective against Omicron than Delta.