Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, cautioned Sunday the “big question” about the fast-spreading omicron variant is its severity.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Collins, who will be stepping down from the leadership post, noted that he’s predicted a lightning-fast spread of omicron to a stunning million cases a day.
“The big question is, are those million cases going to be sick enough to need health care and especially hospitalization,” he said. “This is a big remaining question: Is this virus actually not quite as capable of causing severe disease?”
“There are some encouraging signs in South Africa that there's not as much in the way of hospitalization, even though the virus just ran crazy through the area around Johannesburg,” he said, adding: “There's certainly some chance, though, that our hospitals are going to be pretty stressed. They already are with delta, of course.”
According to Collins, people will have to be cautious over the holidays.
“This virus is going to be all around us. I'm not going to say you shouldn't travel, but you should do so very carefully,” he said.
“I think airplanes, now with required masking, probably being on an airplane is a fairly safe place to be,” he said. “But think about how you're going to get there and how you can make sure you're safe along the way.
“If you are vaccinated and boosted, wear your mask,” he advised. “|When you're in any kind of public place you don't know who might be around you might actually be infected without being even aware of their symptoms, because omicron can do that too. Just …be careful, and particularly avoid those large indoor gatherings with a lot of people where sometimes caution gets thrown to the winds.”
He added that current vaccines and booster will give “very good” protection against severe disease.
“A big message for today is if you've had vaccines and a booster, you're very well protected against omicron, causing you severe disease. So, anybody …who's in that 60% of Americans who are eligible for a booster but haven't yet gotten one, this is the week to do it,” he said.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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