"The South African GP who first raised the alarm about Omicron says she was pressured by governments "not to publicly state that it was a mild illness".
Dr Angelique Coetzee told Germany's Die Welt newspaper this week that European governments asked her to portray the new strain as just as serious as previous Covid-19 variants, including Delta.
"I was told not to publicly state that it was a mild illness," she said. "I have been asked to refrain from making such statements and to say that it is a serious illness. I declined."
Asked what she meant, Coetzee said "based on the clinical picture there are no indications that we are dealing with a very serious disease".
"The course is mostly mild," she said.
"I'm not saying you won't get sick if you're mild. The definition of mild Covid-19 disease is clear, and it is a WHO definition – patients can be treated at home and oxygen or hospitalisation is not required. A serious illness is one in which we see acute pulmonary respiratory infections – people need oxygen, maybe even artificial respiration. We saw that with Delta, but not with Omicron. So I said to people, 'I can't say it like that because it's not what we're seeing.'"
Coetzee said "they tried" to prevent her from telling the truth but "they will not silence me".