U.S. population is less concerned about the emergence of the Omicron variant than they were about the Delta strain.
QUICK FACTS:
- A YouGov survey released Tuesday found 54% of U.S. adults “are somewhat or very concerned about the Omicron variant, which was first reported in South Africa last week,” Newsweek reports.
- That’s less than the amount of Americans (60%) who were concerned about the Delta variant in late June.
- “Today, roughly a third of respondents, or 36 percent, said they weren’t concerned about Omicron. That’s compared to 31 percent who were not concerned about the Delta variant when it began to spread,” according to Newsweek.
- YouGov surveyed 9,938 American adults on Nov 30 about the Omicron variant.
- The organization’s Delta variant poll surveyed 10,579 adults on June 24.
- Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, told Reuters that on Nov 18 she noticed patients infected with the Omicron variant had symptoms that were “very mild.”
- “Most of them are seeing very, very mild symptoms and none of them so far have admitted patients to surgeries. We have been able to treat these patients conservatively at home,” she said.
- The chairwoman has also described the travel restrictions imposed on the country as “hasty” and the reaction from other countries as “a storm in a teacup.”
