Ontario needs to address myth that Omicron is mild, head of science table says

The head of Ontario's Science Advisory Table is urging people to stop their ' wishful thinking' when it comes to the Omicron coronavirus variant, adding that any suggestion that the COVID-19 variant causes milder illness is a ' myth.'

"This is historical. This is unprecedented. This week Omicron will become the dominant variant in the province... People cannot imagine the sheer scale of what we are talking about here. It is really challenging," Dr. Peter Jüni, the head of the province's Science Advisory Table, said Monday morning.

"There is a myth out there that it's mild. We need to address this myth now."

Jüni said some believe that early data from South Africa indicates that the variant of concern causes milder illness but he was quick to point out some major differences between South Africa and Ontario.

"First of all, in South Africa, we only have about seven per cent of the population who are completely non-immune. All of those other people have either experienced infection, or vaccination, or both. We have about 30 per cent of the adults there who are immunological super humans because they actually were infected plus received two doses of the vaccine," he said.