[jfman]

Originally Posted by 1andrew1

Yeah, there's a bit of a dispute as to whether it is milder. I had read the encouraging info from SA but the recent Imperial College report seems to disagree.

https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/2326...icron-england/

No two populations have the same underlying reasons for what immunity they have. Previous infections of different variants, vaccines, etc. These will all skew at a population level in a way that makes it more challenging to say that either variant against the same individual will have a different outcome.

Regardless, the most optimistic outlooks indicate 30% milder. Which is massively outweighed at a population level by an R number anywhere between 3 and 6.