Omicron, half of regular colds
June 20, 2026
22 min
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290 of 364
June 20, 2026
Omicron, half of regular colds
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Dr John Campbell Episodes Around June 20, 2026
Episode 290 of 364 — walk the feed in the order it was published.
22:03This episodeOmicron, half of regular colds
Summary
Half of people in the UK with a common cold have a covid cold
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ONS, 13th December 2021 to 19th December 2021
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/24december2021
England
Percentage of people testing positive for coronavirus (COVID-19), 2.83%
1,544,600 people in England had COVID-19
One in 35 people
London 1 in 20 people had COVID-19
Wales, One in 45
Northern Ireland, one in 40
Scotland, one 65 people
SA data
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-africa/
SA hospital data
https://www.nicd.ac.za/diseases-a-z-index/disease-index-covid-19/surveillance-reports/daily-hospital-surveillance-datcov-report/
UK data
https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-omicron-daily-overview
Tim Spector
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIGC310hPoI&t=142s
Omicron, similar cold type symptoms to delta in the first few days
Omicron cases have less anosmia
Fever is less common
Having 5 or more symptoms less common with omicron than delta
More breakthrough infections with delta, after 2 or 3 doses of vaccine
Common colds less transmissible than omicron just now
One in two chance common cold symptoms will test positive for covid
Therefore, test for colds
Avoid people who have a cold
Pings are now too slow to be effective
Omicron onset, 2 days rather than 5 for delta
Omicron will run its course faster, all over in 4 or 5 days
Infection risk after 8 days in negligible
IOM, back to work when symptoms resolve and 2 lateral flow tests
From 17,000 omicron cases
https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/the-20-symptoms-of-covid-19-to-watch-out-for
https://covid.joinzoe.com/post/everything-we-know-so-far-about-omicron
https://joinzoe.com/learn/category/covid
https://joinzoe.com/learn/new-omicron-variant
Runny nose
Headache
Fatigue (either mild or severe)
Sneezing
Sore throat
(NHS test and trace is not telling users of their Omicron status anymore)
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