You might have missed it amid the relentless, un-abating fear and terror being hawked by much of the media over the latest COVID variant Omicron, but more and more it looks like it's nowhere near as catastrophic as was initially thought:

South Africans contracting Covid-19 in the current fourth wave of infections are 80% less likely to be hospitalized if they catch the omicron variant, compared with other strains, according to a study released by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

Once admitted to the hospital, the risk of severe disease doesn't differ from other variants, the authors led by scientists Nicole Walter and Cheryl Cohen said.

Compared to delta infections in South Africa between April and November, omicron infections are associated with a 70% lower risk of severe disease, they said. The omicron data was collected for the two months through November.

This is all still pretty early and of course the data may change, but right now this looks to be fantastic news, simply because a fast-traveling yet relatively unserious form of COVID would likely be a rapid and efficient way of spreading natural immunity and significantly shifting the calculus of the pandemic.

And make no mistake: Omicron is indeed fast-traveling. It looks to have supplanted Delta in the U.S. and will likely becoming nearly the only strain in active circulation here in the near future. If that happens, and if these researchers are right about it's relative non-severity, that's even better.

Things can flip at a moment's notice -- but for now this is GREAT NEWS!

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