<story><title>Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/14/south-africa-omicron-coronavirus/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bognition</author><text>There are a few important bits here:&lt;p&gt;First: &amp;quot;The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, of 211,000 positive coronavirus cases, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who contracted covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;and second: &amp;quot;At the same time, the vaccine may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with omicron, the study found, describing that level of protection as “very good.”&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Yes the vaccine does improve outcomes BUT the hospitalization rate for unvaccinated people is still lower with Omicron than previous variants.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>kansface</author><text>I don&amp;#x27;t understand this study.  Why not compare the hospitalization&amp;#x2F;fatality rates between _current_ omicron&amp;#x2F;delta infections between similar cohorts?&lt;p&gt;Comparing to an earlier wave is hopelessly confounded on prior infections in the intervening time and similarly, on the most susceptible having already been killed off.&lt;p&gt;Maybe they did what I&amp;#x27;m suggesting and its mostly just bad reporting?&lt;p&gt;edit from the summary :-&amp;#x2F; :&lt;p&gt;Vaccine effectiveness:&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;&lt;code&gt;    The two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech vaccination provides 70% protection against severe complications of COVID-19 requiring hospitalisation, and 33% protection against COVID-19 infection, during the current Omicron wave. 

    Reinfection risk: For individuals who have had COVID-19 previously, the risk of reinfection with Omicron is significantly higher, relative to prior variants.

    Severity: The risk of hospital admission among adults diagnosed with COVID-19 is 29% lower for the Omicron variant infection compared to infections involving the D614G mutation in South Africa’s first wave in mid-2020, after adjusting for vaccination status

    Children: Despite very low absolute incidence, preliminary data suggests that children have a 20% higher risk of hospital admission in Omicron-led fourth wave in South Africa, relative to the D614G-led first wave.&lt;/code&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Omicron variant more resistant to vaccine but causes less severe Covid: study</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/14/south-africa-omicron-coronavirus/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bognition</author><text>There are a few important bits here:&lt;p&gt;First: &amp;quot;The study by Discovery Health, South Africa’s largest health insurer, of 211,000 positive coronavirus cases, of which 78,000 were attributed to omicron, showed that risk of hospital admissions among adults who contracted covid-19 was 29 percent lower than in the initial pandemic wave that emerged in March 2020.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;and second: &amp;quot;At the same time, the vaccine may offer 70 percent protection against being hospitalized with omicron, the study found, describing that level of protection as “very good.”&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Yes the vaccine does improve outcomes BUT the hospitalization rate for unvaccinated people is still lower with Omicron than previous variants.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>croes</author><text>Don&amp;#x27;t forget this part:
&amp;quot;South Africa has a quite high seroprevalence of prior infection, particularly after delta, and in some parts of South Africa up to 80 percent of people were exposed to previous infection&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;So it could simply be that the mild cases were previously infected, what happens to an unvaccinated without prior infection is a different story.</text></comment>