In the interview he has just granted to the “Journal du Dimanche”, the Minister of Health put forward a phrase tinged with hope: “This fifth wave will perhaps be the last,” said Olivier Véran. He abounded in the sense of Alain Fischer, the equivalent of Marc Van Ranst in France where the “Echoes” did not hesitate to nickname him “Monsieur Vaccin”. Both rely on studies recent ones made in South Africa, the United Kingdom and Denmark.
The three countries that have been hit hard by the Omicron variant. “These studies converge to say that Omicron reduces by a factor of 2, or even 3 or 4, the number of hospitalizations”, underlines Alain Fischer. Who continues, still in the columns of “Echoes”: “It’s huge. We already have the certainty that it is less severe that Delta; perhaps also less than its predecessor Alpha ”. He concludes with his fingers crossed: “It is possible that Omicron marks the beginning of an evolution towards less severe variants. So history will gradually shelter us ”.
► Geert Molenberghs, the biostatistician working for the universities of Leuven and Hasselt, is less optimistic
: “There is a chance that this will be true but …”
► “Omicron would play the role of a vaccine”: Yves Van Laethem gives his opinion here
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