In some U.S. states, omicron was not less deadly than delta variant

Less deadly than delta? In some states, omicron caused more deaths The omicron variant, though extremely contagious, was considered less deadly than delta. New research shows that wasn't always the case. NBC News

When the omicron variant first emerged last November, many doctors, researchers and scientists hoped that the new strain — while more transmissible — would cause fewer deaths.

Indeed, early research suggested that though omicron spread much faster than the delta variant, it appeared to cause less severe disease.

But in Massachusetts, omicron had a much deadlier impact than delta — and in a shorter period of time. That's according to research published Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. 

The findings illustrate that a highly contagious virus — even if it tends to cause milder illness — can still confer a substantial amount of death, said the study's lead author, Dr. Jeremy Faust, an emergency physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

"Even if we have a future wave where we are told that this version of the virus might be milder on a person-to-person basis, we cannot afford to misinterpret that as meaning it can’t be extremely detrimental," Faust said. 

In the study, researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and other institutions compared the number of excess deaths during the first eight weeks of the omicron wave in Massachusetts to the entire 23-week period of the delta wave in the state.  ...