As the jaws of lockdowns and travel bans descend on the world, the South African doctor who first spotted the omicron variant of the coronavirus is using the word āmildā to describe it.
Dr. Angelique Coetzee of Pretoria said that after weeks of not seeing patients with COVID-19 symptoms, she noticed something that aroused her concern.
āI said these different symptoms canāt be delta, they are very similar to beta or it must be a new strain,ā she said Monday, according to Bloomberg.
āI donāt think it will blow over but I think it will be a mild disease, hopefully. For now, we are confident we can handle it,ā Coetzee said.
In an interview with the BBC on Sunday, she said, āWhat we are seeing clinically in South Africa ā and remember Iām at the epicenter of this where Iām practicing ā is extremely mild, for us mild cases. We havenāt admitted anyone. Iāve spoken to other colleagues of mine and they give the same picture.ā
Coetzee told Reuters the symptoms could be summed up as fatigue, body aches and headaches, which she said were āvery much related to normal viral infection.ā
As more patients with similar symptoms came to her practice, she said she decided there was āsomething else going on. We have seen a lot of delta patients during the third wave. And this doesnāt fit in the clinical picture.ā
āMost of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms, and none of them, so far, have admitted patients to surgeries. We have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home,ā Coetzee said.
In an interview Saturday with The Telegraph, she said the symptoms were āunusual but mild.ā
Coetzee, chairwoman of the South African Medical Association, said it was āprematureā to say the virus was going to mushroom into a global Health crisis, according to The Guardian.
On Friday, the World Health Association dubbed theĀ omicron variant a āvariant of concern.ā President Joe Biden then slapped travel restrictions on multiple African countries.
āItās all speculation at this stage. It may be itās highly transmissible, but so far the cases we are seeing are extremely mild,ā she said.
āMaybe two weeks from now I will have a different opinion, but this is what we are seeing. So are we seriously worried? No. We are concerned and we watch whatās happening. But for now, weāre saying, āOK: thereās a whole hype out there. not sure why.'ā
One expert noted there was more to learn.
āThe big issue and the big uncertainty is how severe illness will be with this new variant. There are signs from South Africa that, maybe, the illness is less severe than with delta but we donāt really know if that is the case, and if it is, why thatās happening,ā Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the Norwich School of Medicine at the University of East Anglia in England, told CNBC on Monday.
āMaybe thatās because itās reinfecting people who have already got some degree of immunity,ā he said. āIf it generally is causing mild disease and if, as I suspect, the booster campaign will go a long way to still reduce hospitalizations and deaths, hopefully, we wonāt have to live under restrictions again.ā
And in the meantime, Dr. Marc Siegel suggested in an Op-Ed on Fox News that the world needs a strong dose of common sense from the media and political leaders.
āPoliticians and the media donāt help us. Our leaders want to be perceived as acting ahead of the risk, which is why the travel advisories are being put in place even though this variant has already spread into Europe and likely on into the United States, so travel restrictions now will do little,ā Siegel wrote.
āMedia hyperbole inflames our fears and political posturing is transparently self-serving and fails to calm us,ā he said. āOnly science can reassure, providing context and diagnostic, preventive, and treatment tools against the new variant.
āOur leaders must provide constant timely support for these efforts, not pound the political drum to control us.ā
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.