omicron wave dovetailed right on to a big delta weave. a lot of these were omicron re-infections following delta. that mitigated some of the severity. we have a different situation in the u.s. then the big one was we did not take enough steps to preserve our health care workers in the workforce and i thought that an important option a few weeks ago was to offer them a second booster because what you re seeing now is when you are about two or three months out of that boost you re seeing a big decline in effectiveness against omicron. it was disappointing that that was the reality. it went from 70 to 75% protection to roughly 30 to 40%. by giving that boost it would have revved it up for a period of time and basically kept them in the workforce. not every health care worker would have availed themselves of that but at least given them the option. like israel has done after my recommendation.
high in the north east most people are all in on vaccines and are committed to getting all three immunisations but here in texas, about only half the state is vaccinated. the vast majority have only two immunisations, so that creates a lot of vulnerability here in texas, so i m quite worried about big surges on our hospitals because we ve had that experience in the past especially in the panhandle part of texas, the more conservative areas of texas, where people are openly defiant about getting vaccinated and vaccination rates are only 30 a0% so we re hoping for the best but it could be a very rough time. i mean, the hope, as you have pointed out, is that the severity of this illness is not as great as previous lineages but it s from my standpoint, it s still a soft call because your wave, of course, your omicron wave dovetailed right onto the delta wave, so perhaps the reason for the appearance of less severity was because so many of your omicron infections were in fact reinfe
i mean, the hope, as you have pointed out, is that the severity of this illness is not as great as previous lineages but it s from my standpoint, it s still a soft call because your wave, of course, your omicron wave dovetailed right onto the delta wave, so perhaps the reason for the appearance of less severity was because so many of your omicron infections were in fact reinfections following delta. i m not sure we have that same situation here, so we ll have to see how it pans out, but i am extremely worried. let s get some of the day s other news. the number of daily covid infections recorded in the uk has reached another record high. 122,000 more cases have been confirmed. it follows an estimate from the office for national statistics that more
variant that causes more severe disease. i m wondering if that is how we should all be thinking about this now. yeah, i think, you know, kate, we have to be a little careful about automatically assuming that omicron is a milder virus or a milder illness. remember, the situation in south africa and the uk is a bit different in that their omicron wave dovetailed on a pretty large delta wave. so a lot of the omicron cases both in south africa and the uk were actually omicron reinfections following a delta infection. we have a different which may have had some mitigating effect and give the appearance that their epidemic was associated with milder disease. we re in a different situation in the u.s. in that our delta wave was relatively confined geographically to mostly the southern united states and over a defined period of time over the summer and into the early