Real-world data from U.K. suggests omicron is less likely than delta to send people to the hospital

[moriah]

18. Maybe I'm overly cautious. The WaPo article quoted....

... said this data was not yet good enough with regard to sample size regarding unvaccinated seniors.

The UK has an overall rate much higher than that of Arkansas, the community in which I live, as well. Per our dashboard we have less than 55% of our population over five "fully vaccinated" (and while it doesn't calculate a percentage, my rough math says 15% have been boosted) . That's worse than even London in that breakdown, which was the worst region for people in that article.

I have started tracking my state's hospitalizations, ICU admissions, vent numbers, and deaths -- like I did when Delta started blooming here (though as I didn't have currently active cases in the data I collected for Delta, I won't be collecting that for Omicron either).

And I will hope that we see fewer deaths and people on vents, and especially hope fewer in ICU, in comparison to those admitted -- we CAN take care of without using ICU beds. The weakest point in our state's system is the number of ICU beds we can create/staff, and if neighboring states (as they have when Beta and Delta bloomed here) are experiencing similar problems we can't medflight people out to a hospital in another state -- even if it's for something non-COVID related.

That's the scary thing here. I want to believe this is the first step toward COVID trying to become what coronavirus OC-43 is now. But even the first step towards that, as good of a sign as it is that we might eventually beat this thing, might still royally fark up my state given Omicron's known strong ability to reinfect those who had Beta or Delta strains.