The South African doctor, who first discovered the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, said she had been pressured by European governments “not to state publicly that it is a mild disease”.

Dr. Angelique Coetzee told the German newspaper, Die Welt, that European governments had asked her to present the new strain as “as serious as previous versions of Covid-19, such as Delta.”

“I was told not to say publicly that it was a mild illness,” the doctor said in an interview.

And adds:

“I was asked to refrain from such statements and to say that this is a serious illness. I refused.”

She is adamant that in most cases Omicron is mild.

"I'm not saying you won't get sick, I'm just saying it's mild. The World Health Organization's definition of mild coronavirus disease is clear: patients can be treated at home and don't necessarily need oxygen or hospitalization. A serious illness is one in which we can observe acute lung respiratory infections - then people need oxygen, maybe even artificial respiration. We saw this in Delta, but not in Omicron. So I told those who were pressuring me: I can’t say such a thing because it is not what we observe,” says Coetzee.

Full interview in German: here

/OFFNews /Die Welt

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