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Omicron has numerous mutations compared to delta, which is also evident in other characteristics. A Chinese research team at Hong Kong University has now demonstrated that omicron replicates 70 times faster in the respiratory tract than delta. That may facilitate its spread from person to person, the researchers said. In lung tissue, however, Omicron replicates 10 times slower than the original version of the coronavirus and than the Delta variant, which could contribute to less severe disease.
The large differences in the efficiency of Omicron’s replication could help predict the impact of the new variant. Study leader Michael Chan Chi-wai said, “It is important to note that the severity of disease in humans is determined not only by viral replication,” but also by each person’s immune response to infection, which sometimes develops into life-threatening inflammation. Chan added, “By infecting many more people, a very infectious virus can cause more severe disease and death, even though the virus itself is less pathogenic. If you look at recent studies showing that the variant can partially escape the protection of vaccines and after initial infections, you see that the threat from Omicron is very significant.”
- source: kurier.at/picture:Image by Satheesh Sankaran from Pixabay
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