Professor Lockdown Finally Admits: Omicron Is Milder

Omicron is up to 45% less likely to cause hospitalisation than Delta, according to the first major real-world study by ‘Professor Lockdown’ Neil Ferguson.

The senior SAGE scientist – who just last week warned there could be up to 5,000 daily Omicron deaths in the UK – said the country’s fourth wave will be “nothing like what we saw last year, with ICUs overflowing with patients”.

His team at Imperial College London found that overall, people who catch Omicron are less likely to be admitted than those who get Delta.

Professor Ferguson said: ‘You can see in London, we are getting a lot more people hospitalised. Not for very long, probably not with very severe illness.”

The typically gloomy expert confirmed he expected the Omicron wave to be milder, with patients discharged from hospitals quicker and fewer COVID deaths.