US official says omicron variant will 'find just about everybody'

WASHINGTON

The highly transmissible omicron coronavirus variant will "find just about everybody," according to the top infectious disease expert in the US.

"I think, in many respects, omicron, with its extraordinary, unprecedented degree of efficiency of transmissibility, will, ultimately, find just about everybody," said Dr. Antony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. "Those who have been vaccinated and vaccinated and boosted would get exposed. Some, maybe a lot of them, will get infected but will very likely, with some exceptions, do reasonably well in the sense of not having hospitalization and death.”

His remarks were made Tuesday with J. Stephen Morrison, senior vice president of the Center for the Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank.

Fauci warned that those who are still unvaccinated are going to get the brunt of the severe aspect of the variant.

"When you quantitatively have so many people who are infected, a fraction of them, even if it’s a small fraction, are going to get seriously ill and are going to die, and that’s the reason why it will challenge our health system," he said.

Cases have been spiking nationwide as omicron has led to unprecedented levels in the winter surge. Approximately 1.5 million cases were registered Monday, data from Johns Hopkins University indicates.

The US also set a record Tuesday for the number of people hospitalized with the virus, shattering a previous mark set in January 2021.