© Provided by The Telegraph omicron variant, delta variant, covid booster vaccineBritain's omicron wave may be no worse than a flu pandemic, an expert has said, as the first major study into the new variant suggests it is less severe than delta. Professor Robert Dingwall, a government Covid adviser, from Nottingham Trent University, said it was clear from the South African data that panic was unjustified. Speaking in a personal capacity, Prof Dingwall said: “The omicron situation seems to be increasingly absurd. The researchers said that although excess natural deaths had increased in South Africa in recent weeks, they were still significantly lower than during previous waves. Ryan Noach, chief executive of Discovery Health, said: “You can see clearly that in omicron, the adult population has a 29 per cent lower risk of admission.
