The omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus is rapidly spreading around the world, driving the infection numbers to unprecedented levels throughout the pandemic. This is because the strain is more contagious than the others, although it is less fatal than other variants such as gamma or delta.
Because of this, some experts already point to omicron as the most transmissible disease in human history. According to medical historian Anton Erkoreka, director of the Basque Museum for the History of Medicine and Science, the Covid-19 strain even spreads faster than bubonic plague .
Worse than the “Black Death”?
Caused by a bacterium transmitted by rat fleas, bubonic plague was responsible for the deadliest epidemic in human history, recorded nearly 700 years ago. However, the bacteria that causes the disease took years to spread across Europe, while the omicron is spreading in a few days.
“It's the most explosive and fastest-spreading virus in history,” Erkoreka told Spanish newspaper El País. The historian's conclusion is supported by other experts, such as William Hanage, director of the Center for the Dynamics of Communicable Diseases at Harvard University. .
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For Hanage, the omicron variant is the most rapidly spreading disease that humans have been able to investigate in a high level of detail. However, according to him, it is necessary to make some considerations when comparing the spread of pathogens.
we have differences
Today, the cultural context is very different from what existed in Medieval Europe, with a flow of circulation of people and goods much less intense than we have today. Therefore, there is no way of knowing how bubonic plague would spread if it appeared in the holds of our modern cargo ships .
Currently, the omicron variant of the Covid-19 virus is already the dominant strain of the disease in Brazil. A survey conducted by the platform Our World in Data pointed out that about 60% of new cases of the disease in recent days are due to the new variant.
Via: Futurism
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The post Experts say that omicron variant is the most communicable disease in history first appeared in Digital Gaze .
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