RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Since its emergence in December, the variant has increased the number of daily infections in Chile to unprecedented levels and recently led to an increase in the number of ICU patients to 720 – a scenario not seen since August 2021, when the country survived a severe second wave of the Delta variant.
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Minister of Health Enrique Paris claims that mainly unvaccinated and not fully vaccinated people are admitted. Whether this is accurate, however, remains to be seen.
ISRAEL
Other countries with high vaccination rates, such as Israel, show a different picture. Similar to Chile, the authorities in Israel are trying to conceal the truth.
However, in January, Professor Ehud Qimron, head of the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Tel Aviv University and one of the leading Israeli immunologists, wrote an open letter sharply criticizing the Israeli – and indeed global – management of the coronavirus pandemic.
“The truth is that you have burned hundreds of billions of shekels to no avail – for publishing intimidation, for ineffective tests, for destructive lockdowns, and for disrupting the routine of life in the last two years,” reads Professor Ehud Qimron’s open letter to the Israeli Health Ministry.
Are Israeli hospitals as overcrowded with unvaccinated covid patients as Chilean officials would also have us believe? According to Prof. Yaakov Jerris, head of the coronavirus ward at Ichilov Hospital, the situation is the opposite.
Potentially over three-quarters of the most severe Covid cases at Ichilov Hospital are reportedly people who’ve “had at least three injections,” the health facility’s director has said.
“The vaccine has no significance regarding severe illness, which is why just twenty to twenty-five percent of our patients are unvaccinated,” Yaakov Jerris told Israel’s Channel 13 News.
It is unlikely that the situation in Chile will be any different. However, no high-ranking physician in this country has yet dared to deviate from the official narrative.
Israel and Chile have both already moved onto the fourth jab of coronavirus vaccines for some citizens, despite studies indicating it is ineffective against Omicron.
DENMARK AND THE UK
Virtually all Omicron cases in Denmark were reported in vaccinated individuals, most of whom were “fully vaccinated,” data from the Danish government show by the end of December.
Seventy-nine percent of Danes who had contracted Omicron by Dec. 15 were fully vaccinated. According to a report released by the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), a Danish health ministry that tracks suspected COVID-19 variants.
Of the 17,767 Omicron infections (as per December 15) registered in Denmark since the first case was reported on Nov. 22, more than 14,000 were among people with dual vaccinations.
Those who had received booster vaccination accounted for another 10.6% of cases of the new variant, and single-dose injectors accounted for another 1.8%. About one-fifth of the Danish population, the unvaccinated, accounted for only 8.5 percent of Omicron infections.
Furthermore, the latest UK Government’s “Vaccine Surveillance Report” (week 42) confirmed a weakened immune system for the double-vaccinated. The report says on page 23: “Recent observations and data show that N antibody levels appear to be lower in individuals who inquire infection following two doses of vaccination.”
THE SITUATION IN CHILE
A high number of deaths (162) and new cases (36,635) were also recorded in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 2.5 million cases and 40,273 deaths.
The nationwide positivity rate, which set a new record of 26.7% this week, reached 26.1% on Thursday. The regions with the highest incidence were Coquimbo (center-north) and the southern regions of Araucanía and Los Ríos.
An expert added that a collapse of the hospital network as in April 2020 is “very unlikely” because “this variant does not cause such serious conditions,” an expert added.
Although no new admissions or border closures are being considered, the government has reduced capacity in most regions.
The Omicron is progressing despite Chile being one of the countries with one of the highest vaccination rates in the world: more than 92% of the population (19 million inhabitants) is fully vaccinated with two or one doses, and more than 12.6 million people have already received their third shot.
The government has also begun mass administration of the fourth dose to those over 55, followed by those over 18 starting in March.
The most commonly used vaccine is CoronaVac from the Chinese laboratory Sinovac, but Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca, and Cansino are also administered on a smaller scale.