Gov't confirms 1st Japanese infected with Omicron variant

A man with a history of travel to Italy was found to be infected with the heavily mutated variant 

It is a scientific fact that mutations are always weaker than the original.

Sounding like this is just going to run it's course through everyone, vaccinated or not, recent recovery or not. So the faster that happens, the faster it gets treated like the common cold and travel can normalize finally.

It is a scientific fact that mutations are always weaker than the original.

Not true. But we can hope.

Italian media confirmed it was a Japanese person going back home from Italy. I'm sure Omicron is around Japan since weeks already, but I guess the government wants to stick to the "foreigners are bringing the virus" narrative...

Source: https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/coronavirus-oggi-fauci-i-primi-dati-omicron-sono-incoraggianti-AEUKRJ1

Not sure what’s so difficult to understand. Viruses are always mutating. Most harmless. Se allow transmission. Some increase transmission. Severity of symptoms could be less or more than original version. If less severe, without vaccines, it could mutate to something more severe.

Everyone is built different.

It just so happened that for this virus Americans are maybe more susceptible

It's a Japanese man often travelling between the two countries, just read it on an Italian news website. Please stop with this "foreigners bring the virus" narrative...

@ No deaths from Omicron so far...

Maybe virus has learned that killing host is no good. So only selected sequences which is enough to complete its life purpose more efficiently. Or maybe it has yet to hit the poor economy. The most death from Delta variant was not due to virus but was due to lack of O2 cylinders, ventilators and ICU beds.

I am sure not if we are built differently. But it does seem that Japan has a lower death rate than the west

Are you a scientist? A Virologist? You even question now the human biology?

Your comments summarize the kind of person you are.

Update 12/06 6:55 JST

The new positive case is Japanese. The flight route was Italy - Germany - Haneda

Not that the nationality matters honestly, but I see a lot of comments speculating and the article isn't updated yet.

But how is he feeling, though?

A man with a history of travel to Italy was found to be infected with the heavily mutated variant 

It is a scientific fact that mutations are always weaker than the original.

Except that wasn't true with the Delta variant...

Time to end the complacency that comes from the myth that fully vaccinated people cannot transmit corona to the people around them.

I've only seen you and some people who are against vaccination say that myth

I say KEEP them borders closed until we know more about our New Arrival Mr. Omicron.

I say KEEP them borders closed until we know more about our New Arrival Mr. Omicron.

What about keep the borders closed forever? or every time a new variant will be discovered? That would help dramatically lol

Ban international travel during the winter. Close the borders until Spring. Japan is a geographic isolate and such a stratagem is not only viable but would be fully successful. Such is the one caveat in the WHO pronouncement about closing borders and banning international travel.

It’s the first Japanese case found because it’s only a few days since they are actually able to check for the new variant. Plus, aside from the tests at the airports nobody with mild symptoms gets even tested in Japan, so the airport is literally the only place they will ever find Omicron if it keeps giving only mild symptoms. If you don’t look for it anywhere else, 100% guaranteed you won’t find it anywhere else.

As far as we know the new variant could actually have been around for a while, including in Japan, and South Africa was just the first country to isolate it. But no, “keep the virus out” we scream, while testing only those with strong symptoms and producing low numbers when everyone knows 90% of cases are asymptomatic or mild.

Scariest thing is anyway the prime minister of a G7 country with one of the highest life expectancies in the world talking about ‘limited medical resources’ after two years into a pandemic.

@ No deaths from Omicron so far...

Maybe virus has learned that killing host is no good..

If the primary goal of any virus was to kill the host , than the human race would have gone out of existence long time go...the virus needs a host to survive..lots of viruses co-existing in the human body..It's only when a new virus arrives that it takes time to adapt..a.k.a mutate to co-exist and it's during this time the deaths occur and that to where the immune system is weak due to existing medical conditions, a healthy immune system does not have any issue with these type of viruses.

I admit that I don't know very much about this omicron thing. Is this more dangerous than delta one's?