You may have noticed Covid-19 is becoming less deadly. Why? Veuer’s Chloe Hurst has the story!
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00:00You may have noticed COVID-19 is becoming less deadly. Why? Peter Ching Hong, a professor in
00:05the Health Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, San Francisco,
00:10explains, I think Omicron and its sub-variants have increasingly focused more on causing milder
00:15upper respiratory cold symptoms rather than pneumonia and some of the invasive manifestations
00:20we've seen in the past, like cardiovascular disease and clotting. Despite there being an
00:26astronomical amount of COVID in wastewater, people aren't spending as much time in hospitals
00:31as they once were with previous variants. According to the Centers for Disease Control
00:35and Prevention, the rate of hospitalizations at the start of December 2023 was 6.1 per 100,000
00:42people. During the equivalent week in December 2024, that had fallen to 2 per 100,000 people.
00:49The BBC reports that COVID in 2025 appears to be a milder disease. The commonly associated
00:55symptoms, including loss of taste and smell, are becoming less prevalent. However, vulnerable
01:01groups are still advised by experts to stay up-to-date with the latest COVID-19 vaccines.