Doctor Blows the Nide Off Omicron Hysteria: “Nothing… About This New Variant Guarantees Extreme Action”

The first doctor to treat a patient with the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 wants to set a record: So far there is nothing about the new variant that warrants the “extreme action” that many governments have taken present in response to the detection of variant .

In a widely publicized opinion piece, including in the Daily Mail, she harshly criticized the media hysteria and political opportunism that have been the dominant response to with news.

Dr Angelique Coetzee said: “As president of the South African Medical Association and as a general practitioner for 33 years, I have witnessed a lot in my medical career. “But nothing prepared me for the extraordinary global response when I announced this week that I had seen a young man during my surgery who had a Covid case that turned out to be the Omicron variant. .”

She added: “This version of the virus has been circulating in southern Africa for some time, having previously been identified in Botswana. “But in my public-facing role, by announcing its presence in my own patients, I inadvertently drew global attention.”

“Very simply, I was amazed at the response – and especially from the UK,” she said.

“And let me be clear: nothing I see about this new variant warrants the extreme action the UK government has taken in response to it,” added Dr Coetzee.

She then presented the known facts about the Omicron variant so far.

“Nobody in South Africa is known to have been hospitalized with the Omicron variant, nor is anyone here thought to have become seriously ill with it,” she said.

“However, the UK and other European countries have responded with severe travel restrictions on flights from across southern Africa, as well as imposing stricter stay-at-home regulations on mask wearing. pages, fines and quarantine extensions,” she continued.

She continued: “In South Africa, we have kept our point of view. “We don’t have new regulations or talk about lockdowns because we’re waiting to see what the variation really means.”

“We are also used to new Covid variants emerging here,” she added. “So when our scientists confirmed the discovery of another, no one made it big. Many people don’t even realize it.”

Dr Coetzee points out: “But after Britain learned about it, the global picture started to change.

“Even as our scientists tried to point out the huge gaps in the world’s knowledge about this variant, European countries immediately and unilaterally banned travel to the region. this of the world,” she said.

“Our government is furious about this, and points out that ‘Excellent science should be celebrated, not punished,’” she said.

Then, Dr. Coetzee called on the international medical community to do what it hasn’t done for the past two years: Take a qualified approach.

“If, as some evidence suggests, if Omicron is a rapidly spreading virus with mostly mild symptoms for the majority of people, that would be a useful step,” she argues. on the way to improve herd immunity”. “We’ll find out in the next two weeks if that’s the case.”

She continued: “The worst-case scenario – of course – would be a fast-spreading virus with severe infections. “But that’s not where we are right now.”

“Here in South Africa, what I and my medical colleagues are seeing is no guarantee of the knee response we have seen from the UK,” she notes. “For one thing, we – at least for now – don’t treat critically ill patients.”

The first known patient case with the Omicron variant in the United States was report on Wednesday. That patient is believed to be from South Africa and has traveled to California.

Canada on Tuesday forbidden unvaccinated children over 12 years old traveling on any form of public transport, including trains and planes. The ban has been planned for more than a month, but authorities point to the Omicron variant as another public health reason for making vaccinations mandatory for domestic travel.

Government of Botswana’s Covid-19 Task Force stated earlier that the first four known transmitters of the Omicron variant are “fully vaccinated”.