CDC Chief Rochelle Walensky On Omicron: 10 Things To Know

Chief of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Dr Rochelle Walensky, in an interview with The Associated Press, told about the mildness in the cases of Omicron reported so far in the United States of America (USA). However, the data is quite early and just the first glimpse of Omicron infections in the country.

CDC is public health agency of the United States of America that serves as the national platform for developing and applying disease prevention and control, environmental health, and health promotion and health education activities designed to improve the health of the people.

10 Things That CDC Chief Rochelle Walensky Said About Omicron:

1. In almost all the cases seen so far, the disease has been mild and symptoms like cough, fatigue and congestion has been observed among them. Only one person was hospitalised and no death has been reported till now, as informed by CDC Chief.

2. Data is very limited for the Omicron variant and detailed analysis are been done to see what does the new variant holds for the country.

3. Dr Walensky said "more mutations a variant has, the higher level you need your immunity to be". In pointing to the recent approval of booster dose, she informed that there is a need to bolster everyone's immunity.

4. "We have extraordinary amount of science that has taught more about transmissibility, preventive measure that we can put in place to prevent the disease. When I look to what the future holds, so much of that is definitely about the science", the CDC chief added. However, it is also about how everyone comes together as a community to prevent disease in themselves and one another.

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5. New studies like studies of South Africa, the Pfizer studies, the new laboratory evidence of how vaccines are working are being accounted by the CDC. The Chief added, "They are not working well against Omicron as we have seen".

6. In Pfizer data, it appeared booster dose worked really well. There is still an unknown angle of translating the laboratory data into what will actually happen with people.

7. United States has fully vaccinated 200 million people in a year. "We didn't have a vaccine a year ago, we now have booster in 50 million people", informed Dr Walensky. (Vaccination started in USA on December 14, 2020)

8. More than 40 people have been infected with Omicron variant in the United States of America and more than three-fourth of the total people infected were already vaccinated against COVID-19.

9. Nearly all of the people effected were just mildly ill with the new variant of the virus. It has been reported in around 19 states and counting.

10. On being asked by Mike Stobbe about- When is this going to end? Walensky replied, "December 2021, is certainly not where we wanted to be. We have 100 thousand cases a day, we have 100 deaths a day and we have Omicron that's here and we also have extraordinary menu of tools that was not present an year ago".