As infections of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19 — continue to spread around the world, there have been reports that symptoms, in some respects, are different from those of Delta variant infections. Do symptoms really differ? What should you look out for?
What do we know about the symptoms of an infec-tion with the Omicron variant? Image credit: Pierre Crom/Getty Images.
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On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organi-zation (WHO) indicated a new SARS-CoV-2 variant of concern, which became known as Omicron Trusted Source.
The variant has caused concern among health au-thorities because it appears to be highly transmissible Trusted Source and likelier to reinfect.
There have also been some worries that Omicron can bypass the protection conferred by COVID-19 vaccines. Pfizer maintains that three doses of its mRNA vaccine are able to neutralize Omicron in laboratory experiments and that two doses may still prevent serious illness following infection with this variant.
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For these reasons, countries worldwide have been taking various measures and precautions to reduce the spread of Omicron among their populations.
Nevertheless, within a world in constant motion, it may be impossible to stop it from spreading alto-gether. Some cause for optimism may be that various reports suggest that infections with this variant tend to cause milder symptoms than those with previous SARS-CoV-2 variants, such as Delta.
But how can someone tell if they have the Omicron infection? Are the symptoms the same as those of infections with previous variants?
However, the CDC notes this list is not exhaustive, and people might experience different symptoms or combinations of symptoms. Furthermore, anecdotal reports on social media and other platforms claim that more specific combinations of symptoms characterize Omicron infections.
The Zoe COVID Study — conducted by researchers from health science company ZOE and King’s Col-lege London in the United Kingdom — uses data from over 4,000,000 participants.
