The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 is not the same virus that causes the common cold, as claimed in some posts recently circulating online.
These misleading reports appear to be based on a misreading of a study on the origins of Omicron and early reports suggesting that its symptoms may be relatively mild.
Examples of false reports can be seen (here), (here"So basically they've taken the common cold and renamed it Omikron...mmmk," wrote one Facebook user (here"Omicron is a variant of the common cold," says another (here).
Some users who make this claim (here), (here) are referring to media reports regarding a study on the Omicron variant.
This study, still incomplete, said the variant likely acquired at least one of its mutations by picking up a piece of genetic information from another virus – perhaps the one that causes the common cold (known as HCoV-229E) – present in the same infected cells (here), (osf.io/f7txy).
This does not mean that the Omicron variant has “transformed into a common flu” or that it is “genetically the same as the common cold,” as is claimed online.
Contacted by Reuters, Venky Soundararajan of the Massachusetts-based data analytics firm that led the study in question confirmed that such claims are incorrect.
"The Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 differs significantly from the seasonal coronaviruses (HCoV) that cause the common cold, despite both viruses sharing the small 9-nucleotide insertion identified by our study," he said via email.
(Full article by the Fact-Checking Unit from Reuters)