Fauci says omicron variant is ‘raging through the world’

Anthony Fauci on Sunday said the omicron variant is “raging through the world,” as the highly mutated strain continues to spread across the globe.

“Well, the one thing that’s very clear, and there’s no doubt about this, is its extraordinary capability of spreading, its transmissibility capability. It is just, you know, raging through the world, really,” Fauci told host Chuck Todd on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The omicron variant was first identified in South Africa last month but has since spread to a number of countries across the globe and the U.S., causing case loads to skyrocket.

New York set a record on Saturday for the highest number of daily COVID-19 cases dating the entire pandemic for the second consecutive day.

Fauci told Todd that while experts are working to discern if the omicron variant is more or less severe compared to previous strains, information from South African “suggests that when you look at it totally, the hospitalization to case ratio is less than with delta.”

“There seems to be less durability of symptomatology, less requirement for oxygen. But you’ve got to be careful. That might be due really to the fact that their population has so much experience with prior infections, that it might be underlying immunity that’s making it look like it’s less severe,” he added.

The top infectious disease doctor, however, noted that “as a virus, it inherently may not be less severe” because “when you have so many, many infections, even if it is less severe, that overcomes this slight to moderate diminution in severity because our hospitals, if things look like they’re looking now in the next week or two, are going to be very stressed with people.”

He also said it is going to be “a real problem” for the stress on hospital systems that so many people who are eligible for the vaccine have not been inoculated.