A British study concluded that the “Omicron” mutant that spread last winter was less likely to cause long-term symptoms, which are referred to as the “long-term corona virus”.
According to a study by the “Lancet” magazine, a scientific team from “King’s College London” studied the data of about 100,000 people who recorded the symptoms that appeared on them after being infected with the Corona virus on an application, according to “BBB”, reports a local Arabic daily.
The scientific team said that only more than four percent of those infected with the virus during the wave of the Omicron mutant outbreak recorded long-term symptoms of the Corona virus, compared to 10 percent of those infected in the previous wave – the mutated Delta. But the total number of infected was higher, given that a much larger number were infected during the outbreak of the omicron mutant.
Kevin McConway, Emeritus professor of applied statistics at the Open University in Britain, said that the much higher number of new infections during a wave of an outbreak of an omicron mutant “completely outweighs” the low probability that omicron will cause a long-term infection with the Corona virus. “In any case, you don’t have any choice about what kind of virus you might get,” he added.
“What’s more, nothing in these results tells us what might happen with a different new mutant, in terms of the long-term risk of infection with the Corona virus,” he added.
The researchers tried to take into account other variables, such as the last time a person received a corona virus vaccine, but it is impossible to be sure that the difference between one mutated and another caused the difference in the numbers of long-term corona virus infections.
“The omicron mutant appears to be less likely to cause long-term MERS-CoV infection than previous mutants — but one in 23 people infected with MERS-CoV still had symptoms for more than four weeks,” said study lead author Claire Steves.
Although most people who get corona virus don’t get very sick and get better quickly, others have long-term problems after recovering from the original infection — even if they don’t have severe symptoms at first.
But the long-term Corona virus is not fully understood, and there is no internationally agreed upon definition, so estimates differ about its extent of spread, or its main symptoms.
According to the NHS, these symptoms can include extreme tiredness, shortness of breath, chest pain or tightness, problems with memory and concentration (brain fog), changes in taste and smell, and joint pain.
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