Prevention

Omicron can significantly avoid immunity created by both prior infections and vaccines, and younger people and people of “African ethnicity” have higher rates of infection with Omicron than with Delta, says a new study.

In the space of 2 days, the FDA approved at-home oral treatments for patients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19, drug that were months in development. Today, it was Merck and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics’ turn.

The US health care system, already straining to contain a Delta spike, must now deal with Omicron. One expert predicts that Omicron will infect 20% to 30% of health care workers.

The pill, Paxlovid, showed an 88% decrease in hospitalization and death for those taking it 5 days after experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.

At a White House press briefing, President Biden outlined steps that include sending in reinforcements of doctors and nurses to areas hard hit by COVID-19.

Even though Omicron may not have as high of a fatality rate, its infectivity being 3 times higher than the Delta variant creates a grave risk to nations. Overstressed health care systems may collapse.

There is no one left to cover sick calls and vacations now. There are no vacations for nurses and doctors. There are no Christmas celebrations or New Year celebrations for these workers.

Just how much celebrating the pandemic-weary public can do turns on the vaccinated or unvaccinated question.

Omicron poses a grave risk to the US health care system. The US has a low rate of vaccination and obtaining boosters, and a relatively large segment of our population is elderly or immunocompromised. A 2-dose mRNA vaccine's immunity appears to rapidly wane and unlike South Africa, many in the US were fully vaccinated very early in the pandemic.

Children in the United States will be able to avoid potentially millions of hours of at-home quarantining under a testing program unveiled by the CDC today.

Just what health care professionals don’t want to hear. Omicron multiplies about 70 times faster than Delta or other COVID-19 variants inside human respiratory tract tissue, says a preprint study.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending December 17

Any COVID-19 vaccine is better than none. But the CDC recommends that people get the Janssen vaccine only if they can’t get the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines.

The World Health Organization warns that vaccines alone won’t protect health care systems from being swamped.

High-flow oxygen therapy reduced the need for mechanical ventilation and shortened the time to clinical recovery among patients with severe COVID-19, says the study.

Experts worry that the high infectivity of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 will further strain health care systems already dealing with Delta. Expect infection preventionists to be in the thick of it.

The only thing infection preventionists can do at this point is keep the hospital decision makers up to date daily on what variant is being seen in their area and how fast it is growing.

Having an infection preventionist on site or as a consultant to lead infection prevention and control training makes a difference. The ability to screen, isolate, or group patients can save lives. Ongoing testing of residents and staff is critical.

Only a small percentage of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 cases require hospitalization so far, but high infectivity may turn this small percentage into a large number of patients, which will further stress our health care system.

Initial clinical data out of South Africa suggest that patients with the Omicron variant of COVID-19 don't have severe illness.

Take 5 minutes to catch up on Infection Control Today’s highlights for the week ending December 10.

“[Personal protective equipment] was splashed during most activities and did not prevent skin exposure even when properly donned and doffed,” the study states.

The debate over whether fully vaccinated should mean three shots hasn’t concluded, as the debate over the need for four doses begins.

CDC’s Michael Craig: “Every country is an importer and an exporter of resistance…. And our hope is that this could be a jumpstart to help some of these countries start to build the capacity that is needed everywhere.”

In a small study, Omicron appears to ward off vaccines, but those vaccines still carry plenty of wallop against the variant, and boosters enhance protection, say experts.

The looming surge from the Omicron variant may well have a lower case-fatality-rate but its high infectivity will further strain our health care system and fill our hospitals.

Three doses ought to offer ample protection from infection, the companies say.

The electrostatic sprayer method kills nearly 100% of pathogens. It also kills the COVID-19 virus. But is that overkill?

Exactly how the new variant of COVID-19 fares against vaccinated people continues to be studied.

The number of mutations to the spike protein in Omicron suggests a very different evolutionary trail than had been seen in other iterations of COVID-19, say some experts.