HARLINGEN — Don’t press your luck.
Just because the omicron variant of COVID-19 isn’t as serious as some of the other strains, that doesn’t mean you can walk around like it’s no big deal, according to a local health expert.
There seems to be an attitude among some people that infection by the omicron is an easy and safe way to build some immunity to COVID-19. Therefore, some people have erroneously concluded they should deliberately expose themselves.
Not so, says Dr. Christopher Romero, medical director of PanAmerican Clinical Research in Brownsville.
“I think it’s a pretty cavalier attitude to have about the virus,” said Romero, who is also an infectious disease specialist at Valley Baptist Medical Center in Harlingen.
While omicron is a milder form of COVID-19, it is much more contagious, Romero explained. State data last week showed that about 90 percent of COVID-19 infections in Texas were caused by the omicron variant.
“It really has become the dominant strain throughout the country and in the state of Texas,” Romero said.
In the Rio Grande Valley, the health factor is further aggravated by the lack of treatment available to omicron sufferers.
Health professionals everywhere have treated COVID-19 patients with three different monoclonal antibodies to alleviate symptoms. This treatment has significantly reduced hospitalizations and mortalities of COVID-19 and its previous variants, according to Romero.
However, Romero explained two of those monoclonals don’t work with omicron, and the Valley has a severe shortage of the one that does work. The oral medications are also in short supply.
“Our tools to treat omicron are even less than we had when Delta was a major concern in our community,” Romero said. “So, the disease itself is less severe, but our ability to treat those that come down with it and have a severe case of it is limited right now.”
Romero acknowledged that the omicron could induce immunity in some people whose resistance to the infection may not be strong enough.
“That being said, there are still a lot of people who are going to get sick from it,” he said. “We’re seeing that already happening with a rise in hospitalizations, as well as those that are winding up in the ICU with COVID-19.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the omicron variant was first detected in November in Botswana and then in South Africa.
More specifically, an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association gave some encouraging details of the omicron wave in South Africa.
“It shows that those who were hospitalized in South Africa had a reduced need for mechanical ventilation, and there was a reduced mortality compared to the prior waves,” Romero said. “But that did not go to zero.”
South Africa is still seeing a 2.7 percent mortality rate among omicron patients. To put it in context, he pointed out that the flu in 2019 had a mortality rate of 0.1 percent, and that translates into about 27,000 deaths.
“I don’t know of anyone that’s going out trying to get the flu in hopes of getting immunity from it,” he said.
Romero urged people to keep following reasonable safety conditions. If they develop respiratory complications they should get tested for COVID-19. If they test positive, they should isolate. As always, he strongly advised people to get vaccinated and even get the booster shot.
