Powers gives update on Omicron during chamber luncheon

“Omicron is here. It is the predominant strain,” Baptist Health Corbin President Anthony Powers told the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Tuesday at the groups luncheon.

“We are very fortunate. We are better than some of the other hospitals in our system,” said Powers.

He announced that the hospital had just under 30 patients with COVID prior to the luncheon on Tuesday. Six of those patients are in the intensive care unit on a ventilator.

Baptist Health Corbin President Anthony Powers addresses members of the Southern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

“We have no one in our ICU today that has been vaccinated,” Powers told chamber members.

He told the group the hospital has been testing for the strain, and the state lab has performed genetic testing to determine the variant’s presence in the area.

Despite the Delta variant’s prevalence until about Christmas, Powers said, the Omicron variant has been detected in the area since early December.

By New Year, almost 100 percent of the cases found in the area were Omicron.

The Delta and Omicron variants are similar, Powers told chamber members, but they also have several key differences. One positive difference is the Omicron variant does not appear to result in as many hospitalizations, but one negative difference is that it appears to be approximately three times as transmissible as the Delta variant.

Powers reiterated that vaccines do work, but unfortunately, they are not as effective against the Omicron variant.

He said, booster doses take the vaccine up to approximately 60 to 80 percent effectiveness, and boosters takes effectiveness up to approximately 95 percent against severe disease.

Another difference between the Omicron and Delta variants includes the effectiveness of monoclonal antibody treatment.

While the monoclonal antibody treatment was effective against the Delta variant, it is almost zero percent effective against the Omicron variant, said Powers.

There is a new version of the monoclonal antibody treatment that is expected to arrive soon, but those doses will be reserved for high risk patients.

As COVID cases continue to increase, new treatments have been approved in the fight to stop the virus.

Two oral antiviral treatments have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use, but Powers explained that the pills are not the “magic bullets” many hoped they would be.

Merck’s Molnupiravir and Pfizer’s Paxlovid oral antiviral treatments are the two pills to receive emergency usage authorization from the FDA in December.

Merck’s effectiveness in keeping a patient from progressing to a severe disease is only about 30 percent, said Powers.

“It also comes with a whole host of side effects,” Powers explained.

Pfizer’s pill is slightly better on the side effect profile, said Powers, but it does appear to have some interaction with blood thinners and other medications. Pfizer’s pill does appear to have a much higher effectiveness at approximately 70 to 80 percent.

Powers said, for full transparency, Paxlovid was studied while the Delta variant was the prominent strain, so the effectiveness against the Omicron variant is an ongoing study.

When the pills arrive in Kentucky, Walgreens is expected to serve as the supplier.

One chamber member asked Powers about the expected peak for Omicron infections in the area.

Powers told members that originally the peak for Omicron infections was expected to hit approximately Feb. 1, but that prediction has been moved up to Jan. 19. Feb. 3 is now expected to be the peak for hospitalizations due to the Omicron variant.