CNN Medical Correspondent Explains Why U.S. Health Officials Are Hopeful Another Omicron Wave Will Be Less Severe

CNN’s Senior Medical Correspondent Elizabeth Cohen explained to anchor Pamela Brown Monday why U.S. health officials are hopeful that the next Covid-19 wave will not be as bad as previous ones.

“You were explaining why Doctor [Anthony] Fauci believes the Omicron subvariant may not result in a surge here in the United States,” Brown asked Cohen.

“Right. The hope is that there was so much Omicron the first time around” that the country will be spared a severe spike, said Brown.

“There’s hope that will protect people now when the second wave is coming. We don’t know that it will but there’s reason to be hopeful,” she continued.

“Let’s look at what we know about the Ba.2 Variant. We know it is 50 to 60% more transmissible than the original Omicron variant. That’s saying a lot because that was really transmissible. There is no evidence that it is any more severe than the original Omicron variant. That’s great news. We know that the original Omicron, it wasn’t nothing, but it was so much more mild than Delta or any of its predecessors,” Cohen added.

“So there is hope that this will remain mild, too. As far as the vaccines, how much good will that do against this version of Omicron? We don’t know,” she said. “We know the vaccines worked to some extent against the original Omicron but not nearly as well as anyone would have liked.”

“Let me ask about this new study just released today in the Journal of the American Medical Association finding that getting Covid while pregnant doubles or triples the risk of certain complications. How should pregnant people protect themselves and their baby with this latest information?” Brown then asked.

“You know what, this one is easy,” Cohen responded. “Pregnant women need to get vaccinated. And I know, having been pregnant several times, as have you, that you are always a little, I don’t want the put anything in my body. Let me tell you. If you don’t get vaccinated against Covid-19, you’re putting yourself and your baby at risk.”

“Let’s look at what this study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found. They found pregnant women with Covid-19 were more than twice the risk of having a baby early. More than twice the risk,” she explained.

“And more than three times the risk, the moms, more than three times the risk of having blood clots in their veins. It is just not worth taking that risk. People who are pregnant should be getting vaccinated,” she concluded.

Watch the full clip above via CNN