Politicians and media accused of exaggerating Omicron

 Just the News:

The South African doctor who discovered the Omicron variant is now speaking out about how politicians and scientists pressured her to not publicly call the new COVID-19 variant a mild illness.

"I was told not to publicly state that it was a mild illness. I have been asked to refrain from making such statements and to say that it is a serious illness. I declined," Dr. Angelique Coetzee told the German newspaper Welt in a recent interview translated by The Epoch Times.

"In South Africa it is a lighter disease, but in Europe it has been a serious, serious illness, which is what the politicians want me to say. There has been a lot of pressure from European scientists and politicians who have said, 'Please don't say it is a mild illness,'" Dr. Coetzee told The Daily Telegraph in another interview this week reported by The Daily Mail.

Dr. Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association, in November said the symptoms of Omicron are "extremely mild," with symptoms including "a bit of a headache" and "more of a scratchy" throat.
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"The definition of mild COVID-19 disease is clear, and it is a [World Health Organization] definition: patients can be treated at home and oxygen or hospitalization is not required," Coetzee reportedly told Welt, explaining: "A serious illness is one in which we see acute pulmonary respiratory infections: people need oxygen, maybe even artificial respiration. We saw that with Delta — but not with Omicron. So I said to people, 'I can't say it like that because it's not what we're seeing.'"
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Apparently, some wanted to keep in place the control freak policies instituted for the Delta variant.  It appears that the Omicron variant is quickly fading.  It looks like Dr. coetzee was right.