Omnicron Surging in ND with Dr. Carson

Below is the transcription to the above audio:

Omicron is extremely contagious, it’s spreading very quickly in the US, and is now surging in North Dakota. It does seem to be less virulent, although some of that virulence has to do with more people being immune through vaccination and prior infection. It has a very high attack rate. It’s going to find those of us who haven’t had any immunity from prior infection or vaccination before. And it’s going to cause a lot of us who have been vaccinated, frankly, it’s going to cause a lot of us to get a flu-like illness. The vast majority of those people who get that are going to stay out of the hospital and not have severe illness.

So even though it may be less virulent, a low percentage of a very high number of infections can be a very high number of problems: of hospitalizations and even death. So this is stressing, and is going to further stress, our healthcare system substantially. And finally, vaccines, especially three doses, are still good at preventing severe illness. And they somewhat decrease the risk of infection overall. And it’s not too late to start vaccination now.