Recently, the topic of weakening the pathogenicity of Omickron mutant strain has attracted widespread attention. The State Council’s Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism invites respiratory critical care experts and Director of Beijing Institute of Respiratory Diseases Tong Zhaohui to answer questions that everyone is concerned about.
Omickron mutant strain has strong transmission
pathogenicity and virility are significantly weaker than the original strain
Tong Zhaohui said that international and domestic monitoring data confirmed that the pathogenicity and virility of the Omickron mutant strain and its evolutionary branches are significantly weaker than that of the original strain and mutant strains such as Delta.
Tong Chaohui: In fact, Omickron has changed several branches. From clinical observations, Omickron's characteristic is that it is relatively spread, which means it spreads faster than the original primitive plants, but it is mainly the symptoms of the above respiratory tract. In other words, many people do not even have symptoms of high fever, such as moderate and low fever, discomfort in their throats, and coughs, which are mainly concentrated in the upper respiratory tract. During this period, we have seen reports from various provinces and cities in China that asymptomatic plus mild ones are more than 90%, not many ordinary ones, and the proportion of severe and critical ones is even smaller. I was also on the front line in Beijing recently and went to designated hospitals for rounds for consultations. There were only three or four cases who really needed to be hospitalized and ventilator-injected due to the new coronary pneumonia.
Omickron mutation causes pneumonia
or severe or critical illnesses relatively low
Tong Zhaohui said that the proportion of Omickron mutation caused severe illness and death is significantly lower than the previous original strain and the mutant strain of concern. This is not only the characteristic of the Omickron mutation , but also related to the improvement of the level of immunization of immunization in the population and the active prevention strategies adopted by the country. Compared with the global influenza epidemic in 2009, the current proportion of Omickron mutations causing pneumonia or severe or critical illness is relatively low.
Tong Chaohui: During the global flu epidemic in 2009, including in China, the proportion of flu pneumonia was very high. I also had a lot of diagnoses at that time. Moreover, many influenza patients living in ICU were on ventilators and ECMO. Now, from the perspective of clinicians, the ratio of Omickron in the current period to the flu that was at that time, it caused pneumonia or severe or critical illnesses to be lower than that of influenza .
Editor: Li Jingjing
Editor in charge: Ma Keyang
