OMICRON: Robert Malone excerpts today; summary by Dick Atlee

 This summary of recent studies by Robert Malone indicates that Omicron is a

vaccine (and possible previous-infection) escapee, that it is

* more transmissible than earlier variants (higher viral replication)
* much less serious than the preceding variants (at least in part because
 it has a higher tendency to infect the upper airway instead of the
 lungs), and that
* these hold in Denmark (excellent record keeping), a country more similar
 to the U.S. than is South Africa.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject:  Omicron Today
Date:  Sat, 18 Dec 2021 14:49:21 +0000
From:  Robert W Malone MD, MS from Who is Robert Malone

Omicron Today
December 18

Below are five articles that stand out as being among the most important
regarding Omicron this week.

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Epidemiological characterisation of the first 785 SARS-CoV-2 Omicron
variant cases in Denmark, December 2021
Eurosurveillance, December 16, 2021
https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2021.26.50.2101146

/Published in: Eurosurveillance  Volume 26, Issue 50, 16/Dec/2021/

Denmark, as of December 9, 2021. Denmark has one of the highest RT-PCR
testing capacities in the world and screens all positive RT-PCR tests with
an Omicron-specific PCR – allowing screening for Omicron.

There have been 785 SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant cases identified in Denmark.
The earliest Omicron cases in Denmark occurred before South Africa
announced the emergence of this variant. Most cases were fully (76%) or
booster-vaccinated (7.1%); 34 (4.3%) had a previous SARS-CoV-2 infection.
The majority of cases with available information reported symptoms
(509/666; 76%) and most were infected in Denmark (588/644; 91%).

One in five cases cannot be linked to previous cases, indicating widespread
community transmission.

Nine cases have been hospitalized, one required intensive care and no
deaths have been registered.

Highlights:

·  1.2% of cases have been hospitalized

·  0.3% in intensive care

·  0% deaths.

·  76% were fully or booster vaccinated, 14% not vaccinated

·  4.3% had previous SARS-CoV-2 infection

·  91% have no travel history, 9% reported travel

My take: this study is important because although there are studies and
spokespeople from South Africa stating similar results, the Danish
population in terms of age, body weight, life expectancy, etc. is more
similar demographically to the US population. This Danish study suggests
that Omicron will affect the American population similarly.

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Covid-19: Runny nose, headache, and fatigue are commonest symptoms of
omicron, early data show
BMJ, December 16, 2021
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3103

This College of London study shows that the top five symptoms reported for
omicron infection are runny nose, headache, fatigue (either mild or
severe), sneezing, and sore throat.  This study is in line with what the US
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Health Organization,
and European countries such as Spain and France had all updated their
advice. The authors recommend that the National Health Service should also
amend their advice on Omicron.

This study is important because it is more evidence that 1) symptoms are
more mild and 2) more evidence that Omicron has evolved to infect the upper
respiratory system more readily than the lower respiratory tissue (see my
earlier substack article on this topic).

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Omicron SARS-CoV-2 variant: Unique features and their impact on
pre-existing antibodies
J Autoimmun 2021 Dec 13;126:102779. doi:
10.1016/j.jaut.2021.102779. Online ahead of print.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0896841121001876?via%3Dihub

Highlights

•Phylogenetically SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant is closely related to the
Gamma variant.

•There are a total of 46 high prevalent mutations throughout the SARS-CoV-2
Omicron variant.

•Twenty three of the 46 mutations, which is more than any previously
emerged variant belong to the S protein.

•Twenty-three of the 46 mutations are a markedly high number of mutations
than has been previously reported for the S protein of other emerging variants.

•A significant number of mutations are at the antibody binding surface of S
protein.

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Covid-19: Omicron is causing more infections but fewer hospital admissions
than delta, South African data show
BMJ, December 16, 2021
BMJ 2021; 375 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3104
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3104

Data from South Africa’s largest private health insurer suggest that
omicron is spreading faster than any previous coronavirus variant and
showing signs of immune escape, with both vaccinated and previously
infected people more at risk than in previous waves.

More than 90% of newly sequenced infections in South Africa now involve the
omicron variant, and as it displaced delta.

This data has not been peer reviewed. 

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HKUMed finds Omicron SARS-CoV-2 can infect faster and better than Delta in
human bronchus but with less severe infection in lung
https://www.med.hku.hk/en/news/press/20211215-omicron-sars-cov-2-infection

Pre-release of preprint from HKUMed: this paper is currently undergoing
peer review

This papers shows that Omicron appears to be associated with three broad
characteristics: Vaccine escape (resistance), increased viral replication
and reduced disease. In contrast, the preceding dominant variant (Delta) is
also associated with vaccine escape, increased viral replication, and
increased disease severity compared to preceding dominant circulating
variants. 

My take: This study presented the data that allowed me to formulate the
hypothesis that Omicron may have now evolved to replicate more in our upper
respiratory airway, and less in the deep part of our lung tissues due to
shifts in receptor specificity. In other diseases, like influenza,
replication in upper respiratory airways is associated with less severe
disease.

© 2021 Robert W Malone, MD