President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. recently claimed that a COVID-19 infection caused by the Omicron variant is “like having the flu.” This claim needs context.
STATEMENT
In a July 5 press briefing, Marcos Jr. was asked if he would issue an immediate directive after the Department of Health (DOH) logged more than 7,000 active COVID-19 cases in early July.
He replied that the Philippines still has “the capability to handle the new COVID-19 cases,” saying that “Omicron is very different” from previous variants because it is “a little contagious but it does not hit as hard.”
The president then said:
“In fact, the general experience has been… people are down maybe for two, maybe three days, and that’s like [the] flu. It’s like having [the] flu.”
Source: RTVMalacañang, Press Briefing of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., July 5, 2022, watch from 19:24 – 19:35
He added:
“We are getting to that point where we are learning to live with the coronavirus, specifically with the Omicron variant and the other variants that are coming.”
Source: watch from 19:36 – 19:49
FACT
Overall, it is not accurate to compare the flu directly to COVID-19 because “[COVID-19] is in a crisis state with many complicating layers to infection and severity,” according to health experts from Meedan, a global technology nonprofit, in an email to VERA Files Fact Check.
It added that when measured in terms of risk of death, “current data show that Omicron is far more lethal than the flu, particularly among the kids.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) likewise emphasized that despite the similarity of some common symptoms, “the flu is a different disease from COVID-19 caused by Omicron.” As an example, it cited an individual infected with COVID-19 can experience symptoms longer than someone suffering from flu.
Omicron is, to date, the predominant COVID-19 variant across the world. It is classified as a variant of concern with several distinct versions: B.1.1.529, BA.1, BA.1.1, BA.2, BA.3, BA.4, and BA.5.
The new versions of the Omicron variant are considered “especially efficient spreaders of the disease,” according to a July 5 article published on the Yale Medicine website.
Based on a June 29 update from the WHO, cases of BA.4 and BA.5 are increasing in some countries, including the United States (U.S.), the United Kingdom (U.K.), and South Africa.
Some research indicates that the BA.4 and BA.5 variants are able to elude some of the antibodies from vaccines or previous infections, although experts say more evidence is needed to confirm this finding. Antibodies are proteins created by one’s immune system that help fight off infections.
(Read VERA FILES FACT SHEET: Why fully vaccinated people still get infected with COVID-19)
BA.2, which drove surges of cases in the Philippines early this year, is also seen as easier to spread.
The DOH, the University of the Philippines-based Philippine Genome Center, and the National Institutes of Health, detected 190 cases with Omicron between June 29 and July 4, including 43 cases of BA.5, 20 of BA.2.12.1, while seven of BA.4.
As of July 4, there are 7,919 confirmed cases of Omicron locally.
While Omicron can spread faster than older variants, the WHO noted that it appears to cause less severe illness and has reduced mortality compared with the Delta variant.
In a July 5 press release, the DOH said, “there were no deaths among the cases testing positive for the Omicron sub-variants.”
“For now, let’s not confuse COVID-19 as only like the flu… People might get complacent when you do that,” said Health Undersecretary Rosario Singh-Vergeire in a July 7 media forum.
“‘Pag tiningnan natin ang flu at kumpara sa COVID-19 (When we look at the flu and compare it with COVID-19), in terms of death, mas madami na namamatay talaga sa COVID-19 sa ngayon because we have a pandemic,” she added.
“Darating tayo diyan na para talagang (We will come to that, that it’s just like the) flu because it’s here to stay,” Vergeire said, urging the public to maintain proper physical distancing, masking, and being up-to-date on vaccination to reduce transmission.
(See VERA FILES FACT SHEET: When will the COVID-19 pandemic end?)
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Sources
RTVMalacañang, Press Briefing of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr., July 5, 2022
Department of Health, Case Bulletin, July 4, 2022
Yale Medicine, Omicron, Delta, Alpha, and More: What To Know About the Coronavirus Variants, July 5, 2022
New England Journal of Medicine, Neutralization Escape by SARS-CoV-2 Omicron Subvariants BA.2.12.1, BA.4, and BA.5, June 22, 2022
European Center for Disease Control, Implications of the emergence and spread of the SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern BA.4 and BA.5 for the EU/EEA, June 13, 2022
Meedan Health Desk, Is Omicron more “mild” than other variants?, July 6, 2022
Nature, Why does the Omicron sub-variant spread faster than the original?, Feb. 16, 2022
Scientific American, What We Know about Omicron’s BA.2 Variant So Far, April 4, 2022
World Health Organization, Statement on Omicron sublineage BA.2, Feb. 22, 2022
Meedan Health Desk, What do we know about the BA.2 variant?, March 23, 2022
European Centre for Disease Control, SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, June 30, 2022
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Similarities and Differences between Flu and COVID-19, Jan. 18, 2022
World Health Organization, Annex: Interim statement on the composition of current COVID-19 vaccines, June 17, 2022
World Health Organization, Weekly epidemiological update on COVID-19, June 29, 2022
Nature, What Omicron’s BA.4 and BA.5 variants mean for the pandemic, June 23, 2022
People’s Television Network, PANOORIN: Public Briefing #LagingHandaPH, June 1, 2022
Department of Health, DOH: ADDITIONAL OMICRON SUB-VARIANT CASES DETECTED IN LATEST WHOLE GENOME SEQUENCING RUN, July 5, 2022
World Health Organization, Severity of disease associated with Omicron variant as compared with Delta variant in hospitalized patients with suspected or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection, June 7, 2022
World Health Organization Regional Office for Eastern Mediterranean, Omicron vs influenza, March 2022
Department of Health, Beat COVID-19 Media Forum, July 7, 2022
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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