Top virologist explains reduced potency of Omicron infections

A leading virologist and health expert in Thailand has laid out his beliefs on Omicron’s lack of potency and why it’s a step in the right direction. Dr Yong Poovorawan is the chief of the Centre of Excellence in Clinical Virology at the Faculty of Medicine of Chulalongkorn University and has been a top advisor on Covid-19 in Thailand since the pandemic began. Now he’s taken to Facebook to outline the details of how the Omicron infections result in weaker symptoms than previous variants.

With the Omicron variant spreading rapidly, daily infections have surged worldwide, but the death rate has fallen in most places. Dr Yong pointed to data in Denmark that should during the Alpha variant the country had about 3,300 infections and 30 deaths on average each day, while a year later average daily infections are up to 41,000 but deaths have fallen by more than half to just 12 on…