The South African GP who first raised the alarm about Omicron says she was pressured by governments “not to publicly state that it was a mild illness”
newspaper this week that European governments asked her to portray the new strain as just as serious as previous Covid-19 variants, including Delta.
Asked what she meant, Dr Coetzee said she was a clinician and “based on the clinical picture there are no indications that we are dealing with a very serious disease”.People wait to be vaccinated in Sandton, Johannesburg. Picture: Luca Sola/AFP“I’m not saying you won’t get sick if you’re mild. The definition of mild Covid-19 disease is clear, and it is a WHO definition – patients can be treated at home and oxygen or hospitalisation is not required.
She added, “My reports have thrown them off track. In a pandemic, you also have to look at what is happening at the grassroots level. The general practitioners who treat the sick every day must be asked what they experience, how the clinical picture presents itself.
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