Rainbow Rare Earths Phalaborwa project shaping up to be one of the lowest cost producers globally. Watch the video here.
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The chair of the South African Medical Association, who helped alert the world to Covid’s Omicron variant, is still trying to persuade the British government not to panic about it. Dr. Angelique Coetzeewrites this week in the Daily Mail:
" As a general practitioner for more than 33 years, I am one of the foot soldiers who sees patients first. We clinicians deal day-to-day with real people, not statistical projections, and I can reassure you that the symptoms presenting in those with Omicron are very, very mild compared with those we see with the far more dangerous Delta variant...
In the part of South Africa where I work, there haven’t been many patients admitted to hospital with Omicron, and most have been treated at home, using anti-inflammatories, such as ibuprofen, and low doses of cortisone.
Bear in mind, too, that most of those who contract Omicron here are unvaccinated (only 26 per cent of South Africans are fully vaccinated). While this is certainly not an argument against vaccination — I cannot stress the importance of that enough — it’s reassuring to know that even unprotected bodies fight off this variant much more easily than Delta. Current data indicates that the majority of cases admitted to ICUs are unvaccinated people. "
Hope she's right on all this. She speaks well and sounds coherent but is under pressure to reduce the impact on SA so let's see. We'll know soon...
Well the data seems to support her. And since the UK has already taken SA off its red list, it's hard to level any accusation of ulterior motive at her. All the evidence thus far is that omicron is more transmissible but much much less severe. The SA data on hospitalizations and # of patients ventilated and needing oxygen support make the UK's response disproportionate and fairly bizarre. Looks more like a cynical attempt to distract from last week's Christmas party fallout.
Dr Angelique Coetzee is asked how many patients infected with Omicron she has seen with the most severe symptoms.
"No one," she replies. Apart, that is, from a man with HIV who had pneumonia and comorbidities.
COVID-19: Omicron variant may be 'milder' but its infection rate could be 'devastating', expert warns
"I haven't seen any COVID-19 pneumonia and neither have my colleagues," she adds.
A couple of patients she saw before her interview with Sky News were showing mild symptoms.
"They're happy, they're going on holiday," she says with something resembling a shrug. Boris Johnson is creating "hysteria", the GP who also heads South Africa's Medical Association says, adding that the UK is much better vaccinated than her country.
With tens of thousands testing positive every day, few South Africans doubt the explosive transmissibility of the Omicron variant.
Yet Dr Coetzee says the difference between Omicron and the last dominant variant, Delta, is stark.
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"Delta was terrible, it was heart-breaking. When (the patients) opened the door you just knew they were in trouble," Dr Coetzee explains.
"The next thing I had to think about was beds, oxygen, what are we going to do. At this surgery, I think in total we had 10 deaths and the patients were extremely, extremely sick."
She is asked if, three weeks into the Omicron outbreak, she has witnessed similar scenes
"No," Dr Coetzee replies.
The medic has been asked to scrutinise the UK government's response to the new strain by Westminster's science and technology committee
Britain's approach to Omicron - with predictions of one million infections by the end of the month and moving hospitals into "crisis-mode" - rankles with Dr Coetzee because she does not think the evidence supports such actions.
"They need to understand the clinical picture," she says, adding that there is a "huge gap" between "the science and what is actually happening".
"What do I give to (Omicron) patients? Do I give them the same treatment as Delta? No, you don't have to. There is no need for that."
"Do you think the UK is over-reacting?" she is asked.
"You need to take precautionary measures, you have to be prepared but don't hype it up, (don't say) that people are going to die from viral infection, that hospitals will be overwhelmed. It is better to wait and see."
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