This Omicron variant of the coronavirus is pushing its sister Delta out of the spotlight and fast. This is both a good and bad thing, according to Scripps Research Translational Institute founder Dr. Eric Topol.
“Omicron has a harder time infecting the lung cells, which is really good. So less pneumonia if that pans out. So there are some features of the virus that are certainly to our benefit, but it doesn’t mean it’s benign because we’ve seen deaths,” he tells Molly Jong-Fast on this episode of The New Abnormal.
Subscribe to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Overcast. To listen to our weekly members-only bonus episodes, join Beast Inside here. Already a member? You can listen here and sign up for new episode email alerts here.
ADVERTISEMENT
Also, he adds, “There’s clearly, I think now unquestionably, a lower level of severity, but unfortunately our vaccines, even with a booster, we’re talking about 75 percent protection against symptomatic infection instead of 95 percent. And that’s why we're seeing all these darn breakthroughs because that’s a fivefold increase right there.”
This is the reason Dr. Topol thinks the focus should be on getting booster shots for already-vaccinated people sooner than six months instead of throwing resources into convincing the stubborn unvaccinated. But the real Hail Mary, he says, will come from a five-day pill pack that’s supposed to be released by Pfizer by the end of the year—“We can really reduce the hospitalizations and deaths, reduce the transmission, but we only have a limited supply.”
Co-host Andy Levy and Molly also discuss all the ways that Sen. Joe Manchin, Mr. Anti-Build Back Better Bill, has totally played President Joe Biden and Sen. Chuck Schumer, and why he thinks, and we quote: “I’m sorry, Nancy Pelosi, it’s time to go.”
Plus! Daily Beast media reporter Zachary Petrizzo joins the pod to discuss Turning Point USA’s AmericaFestival happening in Arizona right now and the really uncomfortable things goings-on there.
Listen to The New Abnormal on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon and Stitcher.
