The Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV2 virus is intrinsically as severe as previous variants, unlike assumptions made in previous studies that it was more transmissible but less severe, a large study in the United States has found.

"We found that the risks of hospitalisation and mortality were nearly identical between periods," said four scientists who conducted the study based on records of 130,000 Covid-19 patients, referring to times in the past two years when different variants were dominant across the world...