On Wednesday, the first Omicron Variant was detected in the United States in California. South Africa was the first county to report the newest variant of the coronavirus. Congressman Greg Murphy, MD, released information about the variant in his “Medical Minute with Murphy”. He listed what was known, and unknown. Neuse News spoke with Dr. Murphy on Wednesday afternoon.

“We know, as of yesterday, that no death has been reported,” said Murphy of the Omicron Variant. Murphy is a urologist and politician representing North Carolina's 3rd congressional district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2019.

Most of the cases known to be the Omicron Variant have been reported as mild. One of the primary differences between Omicron and variants like Delta is the amount of mutations. 

“We do know that the mutations that are seen in this variant are not only structural but, more importantly, in the spike protein,” said Murphy. 

The reason this matters is that vaccines attack the spike protein and immobilize the virus, but it is too early to know if the new mutations will cause any change in the efficacy of the vaccine. The national media has used the new variant with headlines designed to renew the fear over the coronavirus. 

“The media is definitely overplaying this,” said Murphy. “I will go back to what I’ve said all along. People should get vaccinated. If people have been vaccinated and are at-risk, they should get the booster.”

So much of the Omicron Variant is unknown at this time, including the evolution of the variant, its transmissibility, its lethality, and its evasion of immunity.

“We also have to remember that some of the actions that we’ve done to save lives have hurt our health,” said Murphy. 

Murphy believes that we’ve caused harm by isolating our communities, keeping kids out of school, and keeping families separated.

“In trying to solve an issue with a high survivability in non-risk applications, we’ve caused harm in non-risk populations,” said Murphy.

“We have to be careful not to be obsessive and we cannot stop living in fear of dying,” said Murphy.