Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-05-06 Origin: Site
Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, May 7. A large sample study in the United States that has not been officially published shows that Omicron is essentially as serious as previous versions of the new coronavirus variant. This overturns the assumptions of previous studies that Omicron is more contagious and less dangerous, and further highlights the importance of getting the new crown vaccine and booster shots.
According to a Reuters report on the 5th, the research report was published on the "Research Square" website on the 2nd of this month, and is being peer-reviewed in Nature Portfolio, a journal integration platform under the "Nature". The four researchers were from Massachusetts General Hospital, University of Minerva and Harvard Medical School.
This is April 1. People wear masks on a bus in Berlin, the capital of Germany. Published by Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Stefan Zeitz)
The researchers used electronic medical records of more than 130,000 COVID-19 patients in Massachusetts as well as statewide
COVID-19 vaccination data to examine not only hospitalization and mortality data, but also demographics, patient vaccination status and the "Charlson Consolidation". Symptom Index” and other interfering factors. The "Charlson Comorbidity Index" can be used to estimate the one-year risk of death in patients with multiple diseases in addition to one major underlying disease.
The researchers concluded that over two years, different Covid-19 variants, including Omicron, took turns becoming the mainstream strain, but the risks of hospitalization and death were "almost the same" over time.
Based on this, the research team believes that after Omicron became the mainstream strain, the reason why the number of hospitalizations and deaths was lower than when the previous variants were popular was not because of the low risk of Omicron, but because of the availability of the new crown vaccine. effect.
Passengers wear masks as they walk through the terminal at Reagan National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, U.S., on April 14. Xinhua News Agency (Photo by Shen Ting)
Dr. Arjun Venkatesh, of the Yale School of Medicine and the Yale Center for Outcomes Research and Evaluation, called the study unique and "quite convincing." Whereas previous studies only looked at COVID-19 deaths and hospitalizations, this study took into account patients' vaccination status, medical risk factors, and compared similar age groups.
The study authors acknowledge that the study may have some limitations. For example, because researchers excluded those infected with Covid-19 who performed their own rapid antigen tests at home, they may have underestimated the number of people who were vaccinated and the total number of infections in the latest wave of Covid-19 in the United States.
Venkatesh said the study did not take into account possible treatments for Covid-19 patients studied, such as monoclonal antibody therapy or antiviral drugs, which could reduce hospitalization rates. This means that without these treatments, the harm caused by Omicron could have been more severe.
On March 18, a woman passed an epidemic prevention notice at Heathrow Airport in London, England. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ying.
According to Reuters, around the world, a considerable proportion of people in various countries are still reluctant to be vaccinated against the new crown. After the Omicron strain was first identified in November 2021, some public health officials said that the vast majority of people infected with Omicron had milder symptoms than those infected with other strains. This may make some skeptics of the new crown vaccine feel more unnecessary.
Venkatesh said that the above latest research further proves that it is the vaccine that helps people avoid the worst effects of Omicron, and don't "mistake" that vaccines and boosters are not important. (Hu Ruoyu)
