Omicron: Less severe infection rate has been ‘downplayed,’ former FDA official says

Rik Mehta, a former FDA official and Georgetown University health law professor, joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss U.S. COVID cases topping the early 2021 winter pandemic peak and how the medical community is responding to the Omicron variant.

Video Transcript

- And Rik, appreciate you coming on here to chat this with us because you heard the warnings earlier off the top of the show coming from Dr. Fauci saying that this could likely get worse. We are obviously tracking the transmissibility that looks far worse here for Omicron relative to Delta. I mean, how do you see this going over the next few weeks as we all try and battle this one?

RIK MEHTA: Well, there's a few things that we have to know. First of all, while Dr. Fauci continues to focus on the contagiousness of the disease, one of the things that's being downplayed that, I think, is very important for people to know is that the Omicron variant has less severe infection rates. In fact, we've seen mild to moderate infections in people in terms of outcomes. And so a lot of the medical community, epidemiologists, and others are coming together, talking about changing the context, changing the focus that it's possible with the doubling time of Omicron that many more people will be exposed to it, but what will be the impact in the health care systems.

And the other two things that are playing out, and I think very nicely, is that beyond vaccines, treatment options are becoming more available. You saw the FDA approved two with Merck and Pfizer new treatment options. One being a protease inhibitor that will keep people that are vaccinated and unvaccinated out of the hospitals and from developing severe infections. And I think that's actually going to be a game changer for this. And so when we change the context, it's likely that the medical community will start to come together to refocus this from being a pandemic to becoming endemic.

- Yeah, that's kind of the surprising nature of this, too, right? When we talk about how quickly Omicron spreading, you also have perhaps the silver lining there that a lot of this could end quicker than people realize. Some forecasters, I saw Fundstrat trying to track the data that came out of South Africa when we first saw Omicron, saying that this could be over by, I think, they said, January 9th in terms of the peak and drop-down nationwide. So we're waiting to see on that.

But to your point, we did see the White House come out and basically say, look, if you're vaccinated, you can weather this storm. If you're not, be careful for what could come. And I guess to further the point we were discussing with [INAUDIBLE], there are two different storylines out there for the vaccinated and unvaccinated. What should the warning there be for people who are worried about this latest surge?

RIK MEHTA: Well, listen, everyone should by now talk to their doctor about becoming vaccinated. The other thing, Zach, we have to keep in mind is that next week the Supreme Court is going to be ruling on some of the Biden administration's mandates that have forced both the corporations with over 100 employees and health care workers, where currently there's a patchwork of different state rules and federal rules being applied in terms of vaccinations.

And so with the treatment options being approved, you see really no good arguments being made by the Biden administration to keep mandatory vaccinations coming down the pike. I think, again, with the data, that's very surprising and real and impressive with 90% effectiveness. With the treatment options, I think, you'll see less focus on vaccinations. But more importantly, you'll see a real strategy to finally end the pandemic among COVID.

- Yeah. And we're also, I guess, seeing this play out on the stage, the largest stage, when it comes to sports. You've got the NHL, who recently shut down or began their holiday break early. You've got the NBA and the NFL, both trying to do all they can. But they're seeing their positive test counts rise as well. I mean, when you look at those sports leagues, I guess it's basically the perfect example to be using what you're talking about because some of them are going the shutdown route and some of them, we're going to loosen our testing guidelines here. What do you see as the right path forward in this new normal as you see it?

RIK MEHTA: Well, that's exactly right. In fact, even beyond just sports, look at the political arena. You had Senator Elizabeth Warren, Senator Cory Booker, and many others testing positive with COVID having outbreak through cases. So the truth is our new normal will be that people will become exposed to Omicron and other variants. But the more that people use, develop antibodies and fight against the infection, I think our new normal will be living with COVID and not having those major outbreak through cases, where it ends up in hospitalization or severe infections. And we'll continue to see mild to moderate symptoms until it you fades away.

- So just to hit the point a little bit further there when it comes to, I guess, the way that the NBA has been testing and moving forward, I mean, you think that that's behind us now kind of the worst of what we should expect with some of those interruptions? I mean, the Olympics aren't too far away either.

RIK MEHTA: That's right. Well, you know, again, it's going to depend on what the supply is going to be with the new treatment options. I think once those start to roll out, and I haven't seen a plan put in place by the Biden administration to open up supply of Paxlovid and other EUA issued treatments. Once those are made available, yeah, I think that there's going to be a chance where we're going to be able to put this behind us. At least, that's what the prognostication is for the next month, I'd say.

- All right, we'll leave it there on the optimism. Rik Mehta, a Georgetown health law professor, appreciate you taking the time to chat with us today. Be well.